


His / Dark / Material

by ANathanPS



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alethiometer Use, Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Be patient, Dimension Travel, His Dark Materials Inspired, I'm A Procrastinator, Major plot change, Multi, Plot Twists, how, it is intended to be like that, it's like a puzzle, might be a bit confusing, this will be very slow burn, well you're going to guess, you have to guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-07 22:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 45,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21465616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ANathanPS/pseuds/ANathanPS
Summary: "All my life I know that every step that I make will make an impact on my next move. My mother always told me that our choices can be seen as the root of a tree. An endless branch where it moved towards its' next stop. Always in search of the essence of living."------In which a baker tried her best to survive the shinobi world. Also tried to care for three little brats is hard enough. Wait?Was that a bird that followed around her everywhere?
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Original Female Character(s), Hatake Kakashi/Original Female Character(s), Hyuuga Hinata/Uzumaki Naruto, Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, Original Female Character & Original Female Character, Original Female Character/Original Male Character, Uchiha Itachi & Original Female Character(s), Uchiha Sasuke & Original Female Character(s), Uchiha Sasuke/Original Female Character(s), Uzumaki Naruto & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	1. EXTENDED SUMMARY

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS INSPIRED BY THE LOVELY TRILOGY OF PHILLIP PULLMAN'S HIS DARK MATERIALS. HOWEVER, IT IS ALSO INSPIRED FROM NARUTO. SO I DO NOT OWN BOTH STORIES ONLY THIS STORIES AND THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS IN IT
> 
> PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TO KNOW HOW I'M DOING THIS STORY  
I WILL ALSO GOING TO MAKE A POLL AS THE STORY GOES FOR EVERYBODY'S PLEASURE  
ANYWAY, ENJOY THE OPENING OF THE STORY FIRST SINCE IT IS STILL BEING MADE
> 
> I WILL UPDATE EVERY SUNDAY IF I CAN  
I WILL NOTIFY YOU IF I CANNOT UPDATE
> 
> SO LONG YOU LOVELIES

_[SUMMARY!]_

_HIS / DARK / MATERIAL_

_“We are all subjects to the fate._

_But we must all act as if we are not or die of despair.”_

_-Phillip Pullman, His Dark Materials Trilogy_

↑ / ֍ / ₼ _Dust_. The mysterious particle in which every creature was based on. _Chakra_. The other name of the particle in which Dust was formed in other dimensions.

_Daemon_. Every person has it. But how come this world didn’t have it? Evangeline now felt entirely out of place but it felt like home.

At least the one that she didn’t have to concern of Oxford College or even the pompous lords within. Might as well stay in that world. Right?

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR HIS DARK MATERIAL. THIS STORY IS BASED LOOSELY ON PHILLIP PULLMAN’S AMAZING TRILOGY. YES, YOU WILL SEE DAEMON AND I CAN’T TELL YOU IF ALL CHARACTER GOT ONE.

WARNING: THIS STORY IS A PUZZLE ON IT’S OWN. GOOD LUCK ON TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT!


	2. CAST

_[CAST!]_

_HIS / DARK / MATERIAL_

_↑ / __֍ / _₼

_“_ **WHY IS IT SO BLOODY HARD FOR YOU TO COMPREHEND THAT I DO THIS WITHOUT REWARD?** _”_

**_KAORU TANAMACHI_ AS _EVANGELINE “EVE” MOREAU_ | “**THE JUMPER**”**

** **

“**IT’S JUST HARD FOR ME TO LOOK HIM IN THE EYE BECAUSE I STILL SEE THE SHADOW OF A MAN I CANNOT SAVE,**”

**_KAKASHI HATAKE_ | “**THE FRIEND-KILLER**”**

** **

“**IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO KNOW THAT I CAN SAVE MYSELF FROM THE DAMNATION THAT FATE HAS BROUGHT,**”

**_SASUKE UCHIHA _| “**DEFIER OF FATE**”**

** **

“**IT TELLS YOU THE TRUTH. THE FACT THAT HAS BEEN MUDDLED UP IS UNAVOIDABLE THROUGH THE ALETHIOMETER,**”

**_KAORI MIYAZONO_ AS _LILY MOREAU _| “**THE WILD CHILD**”**

** **

“**NOW I’M STARTING TO WONDER IF THE SINS OF THEIR FATHER PASSED DOWN TO THEIR CHILDREN,**”

**_NARUTO UZUMAKI _| “**THE NINE TAILS WIELDER**”**

** **

“**I DON’T CARE WHAT THE COMPASS SAID, CHILD. THE FUTURE BRANCH INTO AN UNKNOWING ABYSS AND I’M READY TO FACE THE BLACK HOLE,**”

**_MINATO NAMIKAZE _| “**4TH FIRE SHADOW**”**

** **

“**I THOUGHT SHE WOULD BE DIFFERENT THAN HER. BUT I GUESS THE CURSE RAN THROUGH THEIR BLOOD,**”

**_OKABE RINTAROU_ AS_ MALCOLM MOREAU _| “**THE MASTER**”**

** **

“**YOU CAN CALL ME WHATEVER YOU WANT BUT I WILL ALWAYS BE THE WOMAN THAT FUCK YOUR HUSBAND,**”

**_LUNAFREYA NOX FLEURET_ AS_ ELIANDIL SAWYER_ | “**THE SAINT**”**

** **

“**LOVE? IS THAT A TERRIBLE LIE THAT YOU FEED ME THROUGH YOUR WORDS?**”

**_MAKISE KURISU_ AS_ YVONNE _| “**THE WITCH**”**


	3. Part One: Alethiometer

_[PART ONE: ALETHIOMETER]_

_HIS / DARK / MATERIAL_

_↑ / ֍ / ₼_

_ _

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

**"** _It lay heavily in her hands, the crystal face gleaming, the golden body exquisitely machined. It was very like a clock, or a compass, for there were hands pointing to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little pictures, each of them painted with extraordinary precision, as if on ivory with the finest and slenderest sable brush. She turned the dial around to look at them all. There was an arrow; a peculiar circle; an upturned trident, a bee, a crow…Thirty-six altogether, and she couldn’t even guess what they meant**"**_

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shall we start then


	4. i playlist i

_[PLAYLIST!]_

_HIS / DARK / MATERIALS_

_↑ / ֍ / ₼_

_._

** _HIS DARK MATERIALS _ ** _by **LORNE BALFE**_

_._

** _UNDIMMED BY TIME, UNBOUND BY DEATH _ ** _by **M83**_

_._

** _TIME_ ** _ by **HANS ZIMMER**_

_._

** _EVERYBODY KNOWS_ ** _ by **SIGRID**_

_._

** _IF I NEVER KNEW YOU _ ** _by **MEL GIBSON & SHANICE**_

_._

**_WICKED GAMES_ ** _by **RAMIN DJAWADI**_

_ **.** _

** _CROSSING WORLDS _ ** _by **LORNE BALFE**_

_._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> songs that inspired me for this first part of his / dark / materials


	5. [Alethiometer]

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֍

The Village Hidden in The Leaf was always warm in the morning. The ambience of the market selling many goods was heard through her room. Opening her eyes, she saw that the sun has risen and the light had slowly flooded her room. It was nice considering she had to get up and prepared the shop downstairs. She knew that today is going to be hectic since the academy student had nearly graduated. That meant celebration which meant parents are going to swarm the store for cakes.

Being the most famous baker in the village meant drowning in deliveries but making a huge amount of cash. Of course, the income isn’t the same as the expense for feeding three mouths, not including her own. With that in mind, she got up and began to change her pyjamas. She searched for simple and light clothes. A spaghetti strap tank top and blue wide pants were her final choice. She tied her brown hair and took her ivory shopping bag.

Before she went to the market she made tea for herself. She boiled the water in the kettle and cracked up a few eggs, waiting for the water to boil. She also buttered up some bread to toast fried the bacon. Once the simple breakfast was finished, she placed them in the middle of the dining table for the brats to eat. She checked the refrigerator to find what was still good to consume. She opened the half-finished carton of milk to be greeted with the smell of spoiled milk. She almost threw up then and there. She took it out and put it into the garbage can.

She went downstairs and made her way towards the front door. Knowing the brats were still sleeping, she locked the front door and marched towards the general store that was a couple of street from where she was. Combinations of shop keepers and pedestrians greeted her along the way. Not many people were up in the crack of dawn. But the market was bustling with people in different colours to prepare for the day. She greeted them one by one with a smile that made her eye crinkle and dimples shown on one of her cheeks.

She made her way to the general store to buy some chocolate chips and a hefty amount of powdered sugar. There were a few customers littered across the shop when she entered it, doing the routine of shopping for the day. The owner, however, noticed her immediately since she was one of the usual.

“Good morning, Ms Moreau. Another busy day for the shop I presume,” the owner greeted her.

“Good morning to you as well, Mr Takenaka. Fortunate and unfortunate, today is going to be one of those hectic days. With the coming day the brats going to graduate, I hope it is all worth it in the end,” she smiled whilst grabbing the essentials for the shop today.

The owner just laughed joyously. Her comment was ignored since he knew she meant it half-heartedly. Takenaka’s attention, however, went to his costumer. A mother with a daughter in her arms buying a few goods from the shop.

While window shopping she got distracted in one of the shelves. She noticed the rare spices that were on the rack. Assortments spice such as cinnamon sticks and star anises were hard to come by this day. An opportunity arose for her and she considered buying those things. _I don’t mind buying this for stocks, _she thought, even though it would make a huge impact on her savings_. _She got a pack of cinnamon sticks and star anises, dark chocolate bars and a crate of eggs along with the chocolate chips and the powdered sugar. She managed to get it to the counter without dropping anything along the way.

“I also need two sacks of flour and four cartons of milk,” she informed Mr Takenaka.

The man nodded and went to the back of the store to get her demand. Knowing that the man is going to take a while, she took out a golden pocket watch and check the time. The watch once belongs to her mother. Her last inheritance before she disappeared. She traced the familiar crack on the glass of the watch, smiling at the scarce memory of her mother.

She was almost lost in a trance when she heard the dragging sound of a sack on the ground. She watched as Mr Takenaka struggled to get the flour to the counter. With a little bit of help, she hid her hand and twirl it a bit so that the sack was lifted in the air quite a bit. The sack was placed on the counter with a slight bang that made the man near the counter jumped in surprise. A cloud of flour went into the air that made her cough a bit.

She took out her wallet and took out the sum amount that she usually paid for him. However, he refused half of it and insist that she kept it.

“Keep it, Ms Moreau. Take it as a discount from the shop for providing delectable desserts in the fire country,”

She blushed a little at his compliment and tried to convince him that it was not. However, Takenaka was not one to be budge on his opinion. He took it with a smile even though she continued to ‘convince’ him. Admitting the defeat, she gave him the money and began to customize the ivory bag on her shoulder to become a cart.

It was a cool trick that she brought from home. The brats thought that it was cool enough and always marvelled how the bag unfolded itself. It was scarce for them to see technology but she always took pleasure in it. Without further ado, she took her goods and put them in the bag. She dragged the cart across the floor and marched her way towards the exit.

“Thank you, Mr Takenaka. I’ll be sure to send one of the brats to give a lemon tart for you,” she called him.

“Be sure it’s on the house,” he smirked.

Not noticing that there was a person on the door, she bumped into the person’s chest. She groaned for a bit, wincing when her nose was hurt to the touch. _What kind of a chest is that? _She thought. Not wanting to delay, she apologized quickly and got out of the shop without waiting for a response. She sighed and began to search the sky for the familiar bird.

She called for it with a whistle yet the bird still not on her sight. She waited for a moment yet the bird still didn’t come. Until a happy chirped sounded from her left shoulder startled her. She could finally exhale the worry out of her system. It was a hummingbird with feathers unlike the other. The sun made the green, blue, and white feathers glint in its light. She thought that the colours made him looked like a little peacock. She grumbled her displeased comment and he kept his silence by perching on her shoulder. It was the usual sight for Konoha residence –shinobi or civilian –to see her with the hummingbird. That was why she wasn’t seen as a weird specimen. After all, the shinobi sometimes had summoned animal that trailed after them.

On the way home, she noticed that the road began to pick up its pace by the amount of crowd in the street. The sun had greeted them for the morning and people had made their way to the main streets to start the day. Not wanting to be in the middle of the oncoming crowd, she hassled to her home. She patted her pants forgetting where her keys were when the hummingbird flew down and pointed the right pocket with his beak. She had finally found it, a series of keys to the shed, front door, the brats and her room. It dangled with a Shiba Inu with its tongue peeking out. It was a gift from one of her brats for her birthday. An inside joke to reminded her when a Shiba Inu chased after her. She unlocked the door and made her way down the unlit shop. She made her way towards the back room and put her expense there.

The usual Monday morning was about to come and she began to prepare her store. She turned on the lights inside and took out the croissant and bread that she had made in the early morning. She placed it gently in the displayer and went to the back room to get more bread or pastries out of the oven.

She had made more bite-size blueberry tarts yesterday considering there was not enough of it for the oncoming costumers. She put the tarts in the displayer while it was still dripping with juices from the blueberry. The customer always complimented the crust. It was one of the flakiest things that they have eaten. With the blueberry and an aroma from the rosemary –that she put accidentally –they couldn’t get enough of it. Her neighbour always closed the window of their home when dusk arrived in Konoha. They knew that it was time for her to bake and they couldn’t resist the aroma was making them starving.

The second best in the shop was none other than the Tiramisu. Its’ layer of mascarpone cheese and unsweetened cocoa powder made it look enticing to eat. Customers usually bought it for special occasions whether it was as a celebratory cake or when they were craving for it. But none the less, it was almost daily that she made the cake. The strong aroma of coffee always complemented the cake. Paired with a tea or even chocolate made it the best menu on the bakery.

She took out the seat and began placing it across the room. She got a bit of advice from the costumer that sometimes they wanted to hang out inside the shop to admire the interior. The mahogany that imposed as walls and checkered tiles gave them a comfortable aesthetic, different than the rest of the village. The cream chairs with gold feet complemented the background. The walls were littered with little trinkets she got from her past adventures before she settled in Konoha. She noticed the missing fresh flowers that were usually placed in the middle of the table. She had to get one of the brats to go to the Yamanaka florist and bring her a few daffodils before they went to the academy for one last time.

She flipped the sign on the door to let know the incoming customer that she had opened the shop. She was cleaning the counter near the door when she heard the pitter-patter sound of foot upstairs. Knowing that the brats were running late –again –for being too excited before graduating, she knew that they were fighting for the first tag on the bathroom. Like a chore, she knew exactly that if she let it continue one of them was going to get hurt.

“OY! NO FUNNY BUSINESS UPSTAIRS!” she yelled.

She immediately got a response of hushed sounds from the brats of negotiating who got the bathroom first. She swore that caring for these brats were going to make her hair grey sooner. The sound of a bell ringing across the shop indicated that the first customer had stepped inside. A napkin in hand and a smile on her face was the usual routine for her to greet the customer. The smell of hot chocolate and blueberry tarts greeted the costumers for the day. A father and a pair of twins were her first costumers of the day getting their breakfast in Moreau’s Bakery.

“Hello there! What can I get you?”

↑

A night has befallen upon Oxford. Its people had settled themselves in the comfort of their home. The smoke that came from the chimney contrasted with the white fields that were glittering down the plains. Winter had come for Oxford. The scenery was a nice touch compared to the bone-chilling air.

Yvonne knew that it was not safe to travel by air especially when the wind was harshly whipping against her body. Her Dӕmon was searching for warmth while sitting down in the basket. A white fur rabbit with brown spots was her dӕmon. The notorious hyperactive rabbit, Varushuka, always travel with her when he can. So the rabbit came with her to Oxford. They travelled with a flying motorcycle that had been charmed. She should have travel like any other sane woman yet she wasn’t like any other woman. She came here from very short notice.

A letter was sent to her, in the middle of the night, regarding her health and the toddler that she gave birth to five years ago. A letter from the other side of the world. A letter from Oxford. A letter from her lover.

_Beloved,_

_I am sorry. I did not mean to leave you like this. I cannot tell you why I decided to leave so suddenly since the college pulled me from my research. All I’m saying that I have invited you to live with me as an apology from my deepest consciousness. Come to Oxford in two weeks where the first snow had just fallen. I’ll be waiting for you there._

_M_

A stamp was placed in the letter marking it as an official one. She remembered the first time he stepped his foot into her village. Her people were not very known for their usage of science. However, they advanced in the spiritual plane. It was heresy to talk and discuss such things of course. The magisterium wouldn’t allow these kinds of talk to be spread. The knowledge of the authority was not to be questioned. But her people always questioned the authority and magisterium. Making her one of the most sought out –hunted down –species in the world.

The man came and introduced himself as Malcolm. A scientist searching for answers in the topic that was considered heresy from where he came. The villager was suspicious of him at first. He came from the other side of the world where the Magisterium held utmost power. But his confidence made a few villagers reconsider their suspicion.

Yvonne remembered how she got too attached to the man that was once in the village for research. That man was an ambitious one, she knew that much. His frustration of not being able to understand the spiritual ground like her always take a toll on him. She tried to calm him down numerous time and managed to do it a bit. He was stressed until one day he decided to take it on her.

She had done it with consent as well, of course. Even though the man had only been in her village for a few months, she was attracted to him like a moth to a fire. She, however, couldn’t say the same for him. He kept to himself most of the time. He came out of his cottage when he needed to travel up on the mountain. She sometimes stalked him in case anything happened to him.

She noticed that Malcolm might be her age in the way he talked and walked. The air of confidence with a hint of arrogance made him attractive according to Yvonne. She approached him out of curiosity and one day come to the cottage, knocking on his front door. He was surprised, of course. A witch had taken an interest in what he did. He welcomed her with an open arm once you got passed his cold exterior and snarky remarks.

Their night of passion only lasted a full moon. She remembered how he caressed her arms while she was half-asleep. Malcolm knew that he was going back to Oxford in three days. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that he was leaving. He spent most of their time together up on the mountain, watching the Northern Lights and made love to her beneath it.

What he didn’t know was that Yvonne always knew his thoughts. He thought that her ways of dealing with his way of thinking were because the ‘connection’ that he felt. But her ability to see through his mind was the reason for it all. Until she told him.

He felt betrayed by his feeling yet he couldn’t pinpoint what made him left her. Was it because of her gift or something else? A question that he couldn’t answer until his departure. It was heart breaking to know that he was once afraid of his lover but now he was ready to embrace her for all eternity. He sent her a letter of an apology and hope that she forgave him.

Malcolm had a heart to prepare and while the other had a secret to tell. The lover hadn’t seen each other for five years. The long hours that turned into months. Months into years always left them contemplating on a what-if. But now they were ready as they can be.

It was at midnight when Yvonne arrived in the balcony of what appeared to be Malcolm’s study. She crooked her finger a bit so that he couldn’t hear the roaring sound of the motorcycle. He couldn’t see her because he had turned his back on her. He was making a plan for travelling to the north again. Oxford had encouraged him to continue his study about the northern lights. He was excited about it but there’s more to it than that. The idea of meeting Yvonne again warmed his cold heart once more. He had begun to create and bought valuable things for his lover. A gift with the most meanings to the meaningless one. A blue ruby ring that reminded of her eyes to the first Maple leaf that reminded him of her hair.

She studied him before she dared to knock. He had grown taller the last time she saw him. There was a scruff that indicated he was no longer a young adult. He was different yet familiar when Yvonne saw him. He was within reach yet so far from what she knew. He became an enigma once again. With that knowledge, a fleeting thought that Malcolm wouldn’t recognize her come to her mind. Yet, she glanced at the little toddler who was carried on her back.

Along the journey to Oxford, she didn’t make a noise at all. She slept soundly even if her mother was freezing through her bone. Her child was never fussy, to begin with. She always obeyed Yvonne’s wishes and put on a brave face when the other villagers mocked her for being a half-breed. Yvonne didn’t know if she should be grateful or worried for her child. Nonetheless, Yvonne knew that she was quite mature. Knowing that she couldn’t take it anymore seeing her child be shunned, she had no other choice but to go to him. With that in mind, she knocked the window lightly.

A knocking on his window knocked him out of his stupor. He glanced at his window at first and saw nothing. He went back to his work and started to write again. A second knock –quite louder –made him look fully through the window. The blue of the night sky blended with a cloak that Yvonne wore. But what made Malcolm realized that it was her was none other than her hair that slipped out of her cloak.

He sprinted towards the end of the room to open the window. Greeting her with the most welcoming hug after waiting for her motorcycle touched the ground. The warmth of one another was what they missed after his departure. Now, they were here again with one another. Malcolm took a large intake of air to calm his breathing. He was breathing in her familiar scent of jasmine and pine trees. Yvonne was doing similar things to calm her erratic heart. She smelled the familiar scent of coffee and smoke.

Their dӕmon were not different from one another. After the motorcycle had touched the tiles of the balcony, Varushuka, the rabbit dӕmon came sprinting and tackled the other dӕmon to the ground. Pandorica, a black panther, was Malcolm’s dӕmon. She was tackled to the ground by Varushuka and laughed along her side. Like their human counterpart, dӕmon also felt the connection between their lover’s dӕmon. That also heavily implied for Malcolm and Yvonne.

The panther cackled in delight and the rabbit was also overjoyed seeing her again. But their short happiness was interrupted for a while when a cry echoed the room. Malcolm let go of Yvonne in search of the noise. He didn’t know that there was a child in Oxford. Or maybe the other scholars and lord didn’t tell him of a new arrival. He took a step away from her in search of the crying noise when Yvonne called out his name.

“Malcolm, meet your daughter, Evangeline,” she called him.

She was the spitting image of him. His hair and complexion was a carbon copy of the original. Yet Evangeline’s eyes that made his heartache. The almost glowing blue eyes of her were the same as her mother. The way she looked at him with wonder and innocent look was the exact reason that Evangeline was her mother’s daughter. The child tried to reach him even though from his point of view he was a stranger. But the second her tiny little hand touched his face and attacked him with the brightest smile, he knew from that moment his little wonder was going to be the death of him.

.

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	6. [Alethiometer]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU LOVELIES!  
I am soo grateful that you read and leave some kudos on this story.  
I know this is not a perfect stories but pleasee leave some kudos and a comment to this story!  
AND NOW I PRESENT TO YOU CHAPTER TWO!!

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It was a busy day for a Wednesday. Somehow, her pastries and cakes became much more famous. Gossips of her blueberry tarts and Tiramisu had reached the land of water. So now, tourists from that land became aware of the bakery and made thousands of miles away from their home to her shops. She was glad obviously which means more income for her and the brats.

Incoming customers always asked for a new menu every single time they paid. Eve took it as a challenge to come up with a new recipe and it paid off after days of frustration and joy on a fine Sunday morning. She had made a Bundt cake with a taste of a rum.

The exterior of the cake was glistening with melted sugar. On top of it, was an assortment of nuts. She saw a jar of unused nuts such as almonds, walnuts, and cashews. Not wanting to waste food with good qualities, she crushed the nuts and poured it on top of the Bundt cake. The first time it came, people came speculating if the cake would be good to try. Until one day, a shinobi came and tried it, asking what kind of drink the cake was best paired it with.

It was on a cold day in December. Winter had come to Konoha and snow had begun falling. The aesthetic of Konoha that was once green and blue became a winter wonderland. That was why she made this wonderful rum cake. Customers would’ve wanted something to warm their being. Being an adult herself, she knew that the best way to warm yourself was through the liquor. The locals –civilians and shinobi –only used liquor as a form of drink but she made it as a cake to create something different.

That day was a slow day for sure. Not many customers came because the wind had picked up its form and a storm had come midday. The brats had come early today and already made their way upstairs. They huddled up together the last time she saw. She made them hot chocolates and told them if they needed anything just called her. They ignored her because they were too absorbed in their conversation. Now she was just waiting until it was time for her to close the store.

The bell rang on the shop and came in a shinobi. The headband with metal gave it away. She greeted him with a smile and asked him what he wanted. He looked through every cake and pastry, scratched his head and pointed to the one that was freshly made. She followed his finger and found he wanted the Bundt cake that she had specially made.

“Is there anything that you wanted it paired with?” she asked him.

He shrugged and told her he wouldn’t care.

“If it’s like what my friend said, you would know which one of it is best paired with,” he teased her.

Eve smirked back at him. So he was that kind of customers, she thought. In six years she had opened up this bakery, Eve noticed the types of costumers that entered the shop. There were the enthusiastic, open-minded ones that would love to try every single bit of the cakes and pastries she had made. They always come to the shop frequently and always greeted her with a delighted smile and words to try for more of her ‘exotic’ cuisine. But there was also the one who wouldn’t admit their curiosity, they were the ones who admitted that they didn’t have a sweet tooth and always came back saying that it wasn’t sweet enough. She couldn’t complain, however. She knew that the more costumers came, the more money she made.

“I’ll be with you in a moment,” she finally said.

He was looking for shelter since the snowstorm was quite big this time of the day. He stumbled upon a store with dim lighting. His friends with sweet teeth always told him about the bakery on the outskirts of Konoha. He was kind of sceptical when he saw the exterior of it. The outside of the shop looked like the others in Konoha. But he was kind of bored and in need of shelter so he went into the shop, making the bell rang through the shop. A woman in her mid-twenties –he presumed –was the keeper of the shop. A shoulder-length curly hair and a pair of blue eyes greeted him.

After the woman, went to the back of the shop. He sat on the front counter and waited for his order. He was looking at the interior of the shop and found it quite different than the rest of the village. It was sophisticated in its different way and made his eyes wander through every part of the shop. He saw a photograph on his right. It was that woman with a little girl that was around six on her arms. They were in front of the soon to be a famous bakery in all of Konoha.

He was interrupted with a cough and the lady managed to get his eye focus on her again. As it turns out, Eve already put his orders in front of him. The mountain cake that he saw –it’s called a Bundt cake, she replied –was top with powdered sugar. He couldn’t imagine how sweet it could be but decided to not judge a book by its cover. On the side was some sliced strawberry and he couldn’t help but notice that maybe the lady wanted to impress this hard to impress customer. He clapped her for her thoughtful effort. But he couldn’t help but took a large intake of the sweet and delightful smell of the drink.

Now, the woman was tending to another customer who had entered the shop. She left him behind with his food and drink to greet the customer. She went over the counter and hugged the customer. They were a pair of a mother and her son. The mother greeted her with a warm smile and hugged her. They greeted one another with light, obviously knowing one another. The son, who was about three and in his mother’s arm, began to reach for her. The woman took him from his mother’s embrace and held him as if he was her son. It gave the stranger a smile behind the mask. It was hard to find such warmth and happiness for the civilian who lived in Konoha.

The war and hardship that they went through made it hard for the one who didn’t apply as a Shinobi. They relied on one another to build their own home after the attack. Whether the Shinobi would like to admit it or not, they also relied on civilians. Civilians who lived behind the walls of Konoha was not an ordinary civilian who lived outside it. They were made to withstand an attack and protect themselves from it. They have their procedure pre and post an attack.

The masked man went back to his menu. He noticed that it was white and stirred it noticing the creamy texture of it. The texture made him not want to drink it but the smell of it was what made him reconsider his choice. His nose was greeted by the smell of a spiced rum and nutmeg. It was a smell that he never thought of. He put the cup between his hands and the warmth seeped into his glove.

The woman was talking animatedly with the mother and her son in the shop when he decided to take a bite and a sip. He uncovered his face and tried the drink. Once the liquid touched his tongue, his taste bud was flooded with a sweet and creamy drink. He could taste eggs, nutmeg, milk, and surprisingly spiced rum. He knew that rum was naturally hard to come by in Konoha. But somehow the owner managed to get this rare liquor. His face gave away the reaction of surprise. However, no one was able to see it and he thanked whoever it was up there.

Next, he tried the cake. The minute his fork went into it, he noticed that it was moist enough that his fork went through it smoothly. He was not one to be satisfied very easily but feeling that made him melt inside. He took a small portion and shoved the cake inside his mouth. He almost moaned out loud because of the taste of the cake. The different texture of the cake and the assortment nuts pleased his mouth. He noted that there were almonds and cashews. There was this nut that he couldn’t identify since it didn’t grow in Konoha. The outside was a brown colour and looked like to be crispy but he thought wrong. The cake itself was soft. But the taste was what pleased him the most.

He thought that all cakes should be sweet. Maybe that’s why he didn’t like cake as much, he didn’t like sweet either way. But contrary to his belief, this cake was not sweet, to begin with. The moment the cake touched his tongue he was greeted by the zesty of lime. He was surprised by the liquor that was in the cake. The alcohol was much more prominent than the one in the drink. He was eating the cake –almost shoving it –down his throat. He could get drunk off of this cake, he thought.

The time Eve was finished taking the menu for the other customer, she came to check up on him. She saw that the cake was already finished and the eggnog was half-way through. She was kind of surprised that he could eat that fast, but she wouldn’t judge him. Everybody was different. She smiled at him when he noticed her stare. The man smiled back, well she could only tell it by the eye. Now, she began to notice how the man was a peculiar one even for a Shinobi.

His face was almost covered by a mask and a headband that covered one of his eyes. A hair that was odd of colour and gravity-defying. He was odd even for a standard Shinobi, she thought. Eve couldn’t even name him but once she did she will remember it. After all, who had grey hair when they looked not much older than her.

Eve remembered the customer who was waiting for a chocolate croissant, a couple of cheese tarts, and two cups of hot chocolate. She took her eyes off him and sauntered to the back, making the ordered hot chocolate. It took her a while to heat and stir the chocolate but after she had done serving them the man was gone. The plate and cup were stacked neatly with a pile of money –and a hefty tip –a note left beside it. She pocketed the note and went to the back to wash the dirty dishes. When she was done, she came back to the front and have a quick chat with the customer.

The mother and son were the last costumers for the day. Once they were out of the door, she clapped her hand twice and the chair began to stack neatly by themselves. A few wipes flew and wiped the counters and tables for dust and leftovers of the customer. The broom came from the closet and made their way to the front to swept the floor. Leftover flew themselves to the opened box on the counter. Eve made a note for herself to go to the children’s hospital to visit.

Once everything was done, the box went to the refrigerator on the back and the rest went back to their usual place. The light turned off by themselves and she made her way upstairs. She checked on the brats to make sure that they were on their bed. They huddled with one another searching for warmth. She watched as their chest made rose and fall. Satisfied with the situation, she closed the door and made her way towards the bathroom.

She gave herself a treat of a warm bath with aromatherapy candles surrounding her. She snapped her finger twice and through the door, a bottle of wine was halfway open with a mug on its trail. Eve reached for the mug and it glided smoothly while the wine was pouring itself into the mug. She sighed in delight and fall into the abyss of comfort. She could use this kind of day once in a while, she thought. She began to plan for tomorrow’s agenda. She already promised a nurse in the hospital to give the children some sweets and felt bad if she didn’t do it sooner. So, she decided to close for tomorrow and visited them.

Her eyes began to feel heavy and body relaxed. She got out of the bath, in fear of drowning. She put on a bathrobe and opened the clog, watching how the water slipped away into the hole. She put the wine and mug away on their respectful place –one in the pantry and one in the sink for tomorrow’s washing. She used a little bit of magic to put the dirty laundry in the washing room and made her way to her bedroom. She didn’t bother to lit up her room and decided to shut her eyes. Once her head hit the pillow she was out like a light blown by a harsh wind.

Unknown to her, the next morning she forgot to read the note and put it in the trashcan accidentally.

-

It was a few days after the odd Shinobi visited. She never learned of his name but never forgot his face. After his visit, many people came to the shop just for the Bundt cake. She never knew why but before she could ask for their order was always the same one in December. A mountain cake and an egg drink –which she replied with their official name, a Bundt cake and eggnog –they looked at her and laughed out loud calling the name was stupid.

Eve ignored them obviously since customers were practically kings and queens. The customers that went through their door always told them the same order which was kind of odd. Shinobi didn’t normally come to her shops but now ever since the odd dude came to visit her, her shop was filled to the brim with them. She even asked for one of her brats to went down and help her. Her sister, Lily was able to do so since she didn’t partake the academy to become a Shinobi.

Lily Moreau, her sister with a twelve years’ difference. She was different than her, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Lily was born with golden locks and ocean eyes. Her ragged appearance was because of how she played with the other brats. She was born to be a wild and curious child, Eve thought. They were sisters but different and the same in many different ways. Yes, they were different physically but they share a single thing that made people connected them as sisters. Their compassion for the surrounding is what connected them.

The strive to do good is always in the sisters’ mind, even for the smallest things. Lily once fight a Genin for defending her friend. Lily thought it was worth it even if Eve told her otherwise. She went home that night after fighting said Genin with a black eye and scraped knees. She boldly claimed that her opponent had it worse.

But now, the so claimed wild child was greeting the customers with a wide smile and twinkling eyes. Eve almost lost her composure when the Shinobi was greeted with a ball of sunshine. They smiled, however, at Lily. Out of amusement or fear, that she didn’t know.

She went to another customer when she noticed that Lily could handle the others. The order now was a bit different. The person requested a couple of blueberry tarts and a glass of water. She immediately went to the back to get the order. Today was a busy day since Konoha opened its’ gate for tourists. The high heavens blessed –or maybe cursed her –for many of them came to the shop. They asked for various cakes and pastries to bring home. It was good that her brand was going through different villages but sooner or later she might need some help.

She gave orders to their respective customers and missed the grey-haired Shinobi who came to the shop. He was glad that she didn’t notice him. He was still a bit embarrassed by the note that he gave her. He was certainly a bit hopeful to be served by her but luck was not on his side. Instead, he was served by a girl with untamed golden locks that spilt all over her shoulder. Ocean eyes greeted him and he was asked if everything was okay.

“It’s splendid like always,” he gave her a tip and leave the place, ruffling her hair.

The reaction was immediate, Lily slapped his hand away and managed to growl. The Shinobi put his hand up in surrender and instead placed his hand in her shoulder. Lily was surprised that Shinobi was willing to be buddy-buddy with a stranger. Usually, they did not like to be touched but it seemed that he was a special case.

“I got to ask you a favour, girl. Tell your sister to keep what she’s doing,” he nodded his head at the female who didn’t notice she was being watched. Lily followed his train of sight towards her sister. She blinked and tried to process what he meant. But before she could ask, the man already moved out of her sight and she shrugged, didn’t bother to interpret the meaning of the message. Shinobi became a bit weird these days, she thought.

The sisters went back to their usual routine of cleaning the tables from previous customers, greeting the new ones, took notes of the order, and served them. It was an endless cycle until the closed down the shop, beat down to the ground. And after it, they spent time with the other brats and asked them of their day. The sisters’ day may not be as wild or erratic as the other brats but the brats sure know how tiring it was to run a bakery. In a silent agreement, they respected each of their careers.

↑

Eve was already twelve at that time. Her spirit as a child of a witch was shown at that age. She climbed on the roof multiple times, even if her mother forbade it. Not only that she was also considered a genius, the scholars who taught her always gave her the compliment towards Malcolm and Yvonne. Eve felt so much more different when she lived with her mother in the village. She and her mother were shunned when they found out she was a half-breed.

Eve was a bit heartbroken when she saw her mother was thrown by stones or even fruits. Yvonne always put a smile on her face to comfort her when Eve already knew the truth. Yvonne, however, knew that she has done that not to comfort her child but for herself. It was hard for Eve when she already gained the ability to see through her mother’s comforting lie.

But now she could see that her mother was happy. With her eyes that shone whenever Malcolm and Eve were with her or when she read the book in the library of Oxford. Books in the village were scarce beside grimoires and potions book. The witches’ knowledge about the outside world was limited since they lived in the north.

The north was a place for misfits and people who could not be controlled by the Magisterium. They tried hundreds of years to get a hold for the place. But the north was a vast continent and the Magisterium didn’t have much time to control such a vast continent that was filled with extraordinary people. Here, however, in the south were so different, Eve thought.

Running around the college was considered wild while in the North it was a form of freedom. A few months after she lived here was filled with adjustment. She couldn’t do everything she wanted, she couldn’t talk so harshly to the Professors, but if it got her mother happy she would remain happy as well. With her father gone again, however, left her mother in a melancholy state. It had been almost two years after he went to the North with the Magisterium.

The Magisterium, a mighty institute that governed almost half of the world. They controlled supplies, knowledge, and even a full continent. Eve admired that kind of power. Whoever it was that controlled the Magisterium could bend the world to their will. That was why Eve asked –more like begged –to her father for studies with the Professors at Oxford. A strive to control something was because the situation her mother had gone through while bearing and taking care of her. Yvonne was an ordinary witch, not even a queen that led her to be shunned. Eve couldn’t stand seeing her mother in such position, thus her will to have control grew stronger.

A price to work for Magisterium was going to be high, that she knew of. Her position as a half-breed would get her nowhere. But her position as a child of Lord Malcolm, a Master at Oxford would get her into the Magisterium. She was certain of that. That was why she was in front of one of the board members’ door, boldly knocking it. She hesitated for a bit until she noticed the arctic fox that laid next to her feet.

He was her dӕmon. Betelgeuse, a name that was chosen by her mother’s dӕmon. His form hadn’t settled yet; he was changing from one form to another. There was a time that he was a Siamese cat and a time where he changed as a falcon. He hadn’t settled yet and her mother told her not to worry about it. For now, he settled his form as an arctic fox. His white fur was the most beautiful thing. It contrasted with the nature that surrounded them. Green and orange aesthetic somehow blend well with his white coat.

He touched her shoes as a sign of comfort. He could feel the anxious rolling of her being. Her dream to work for the Magisterium was always disregarded by the members. Always gave her the same reason, a stupid one she thought.

_“Bah, a woman working for the Magisterium. If I were you, little girl, I would be happy to just be working in the kitchen while pleasuring the man in the bedroom,”_

She could hear that mock until now. Which was why she came to this door. On the other side of the door was a new member of the college. He was entering his second year but already gained a reputation among the scholars and lords. She hoped that the rumours were true about him. An opened minded man who was willing to listen to others.

“You always can turn back and asked your father’s help,” Betelgeuse suggested.

Eve turned to him and bend down to see him eye to eye.

“I can’t, Bett. If I do the boards are going to mock me more for abusing my father’s position,” she replied.

“Well knock on it like there’s no tomorrow, Eve,” he challenged her.

Her spirit came back to her and smirked in reply. With a bit of courage, he knocked on his door.

A muffled sound where her answer and she opened it. She was greeted by a man with a long robe that any members of the college wore. He, however, only came two years ago. He was fairly young and handsome. His golden locks paired with blue eyes charmed many women. The gyptians that lived by the river always stared at him if he came to the village. His looks, however, were the opposite of his mind. The sharp and wit of his always put everyone to shame. And with only two years, he already mastered a bachelor degree in physics and now working on his Master degree for Politic Science.

When he noticed that it was just Malcolm’s daughter, he greeted her with a smile. His dӕmon was perched near him and the window, a crow that cawed at them in response. He was a bit surprised to find a little girl knocking on his door. But he knew that she was no ordinary little one. Words spread like a disease behind the walls of Oxford that a child of Lord Malcolm was a half-breed from a witch. Yet he was intrigued not because where she came from but what she wanted to become. He heard a professor joking loudly of how a mere child came to him and told him off of how she would make her dreams come true. Now, low and behold, the so-called child stood in front of him.

“I assume you come here to discuss an important matter, aren’t you, Ms Moreau?” he asked.

“And I assume as well the old tired scholars cannot shut their traps, Master,” she bit back.

He only laughed in surprise and ushered her to sit on the sofa. She obliged with Betelgeuse trailing behind her. They plopped down and the Master sat on the other side. He offered her something to drink and she refused, wanting to get straight to the point.

“Master, I require your assistance for something,” she started.

The master only raised one of his eyebrows, a sign for her to continue.

“I have read your thesis on the Magisterium power and how they expanded it. Splendid work, of course, no one can deny it. No one is brave enough to dig deep on the Magisterium secrets on their settlements in the north,” she continued.

“Or brave enough,” he mumbled.

“The Magisterium is a powerful institute that will do whatever it takes so that their secret won’t leak out. But we are protected by the scholastic sanctuary and that way they won’t touch us. Secrets in the Magisterium or the College always fascinated me and –“

“You wanted an apprenticeship from me,” he cut her off.

Eve only nodded and waited for the master to reply. The master stood and walked towards the window to look outside. His eyes were filled with a contemplation of the offer. The offer was tempting because of the effect it caused. With him taking Eve as an apprentice, he would gain quite the reputation because Eve was no ordinary child. Eve Moreau was the daughter of Lord Malcolm Moreau. The Lord had gained a reputation between the board member of the College and the Magisterium.

A little bird told him that Lord Malcolm had been offered a position in the Magisterium. To levered his position in the College and gained attention to the Magisterium, he needed to take the offer. He looked towards his dӕmon. Hermetheus was a female crow. A companion that he had gotten ever since forever. He looked for guidance to the dӕmon. She seemed like in a trance for a bit and finally gave him a nod. A sign for him to accept the offer.

“What can you offer me in exchange, Ms Moreau?” he finally replied after a tense silence.

She was surprised that he asked something in exchange. Eve looked towards her dӕmon and Betelgeuse stared at her. He was surprised too. In all honesty, he thought that the Master would just turn them away. But with his new answer, he was left with a blank mind as to what to do next. Eve, opposite of her dӕmon, already thinking of an answer.

“I will give you an offer to do whatever you wish in an exchange for an apprenticeship,” Eve told him.

Betelgeuse called out to her in surprise and Eve only looked at the Master’s eyes with smug. The Master only smirked at her. This kid got guts, he gave her that. Her dӕmon was trying to convince her otherwise, however. He thought that a kid at her age gambled a lot, but this kind of behaviour reminded him of someone.

“You cannot be serious now, Eve. You know that a witch cannot go back on her words,” Betelgeuse voiced his thought.

“On the contrary, I am very serious,” she replied while still looking towards the Master.

The Master glide to her spot and offered his hand to shake. The way she gambled things for uncertainty was bold. And he admired bold people to no end. Eve knew that even if she gained the apprenticeship didn’t ensure her to succeed nonetheless she took the leap of faith.

She took his hand and shook it vigorously. A silver and transparent bond were made from their conjoined hands. A witch’s promise cannot be broken and Eve knew that knowledge. He may not be able to see it but she could. It was the first step that she was going to take to reach her dream. And she was going to make more step until she was able to see it through.

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	7. [Alethiometer]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my wonderful readers! I am so sorry for not updating in quite a while since I have to rearrange some of the plots but anyway without further ado head on to the story and enjoy it! Don't forget to give a lot of kudos, subscribe or even comment on the story!!

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Eve was in the library that day. Her studies from her professor were heard all around the College. The rumour of the new professor taking the first apprentice was intriguing. And because of that, they made an offer to her too. One professor named Mcreedy offered her an apprenticeship on the subject of Philosophy. She was not that interested in the lecture, however. Yet, her father only encouraged her to take the study since it could be quite useful. Her thought was whisked away from the book that she read to the day she told her father about the successful approach on the new professor.

The philosophy study was, in fact, an interesting study, like her father had said. The study of how the mystery of dust and dӕmon was considered heretical, yet in the College, it became an everyday argument between scholars. Eve couldn’t comprehend the concept of dust now. She was now in the study of Ms Mcreedy trying to focused on what she was saying.

“Are you still with us, Eve?” Ms Mcreedy asked her.

She was snapped from her stupor and only gave Ms Mcreedy a blank look. She was distracted today since there was a rumour that a man in a helicarier was on his way to the College. She was wondering if that man was her father. She remembered that time when she was left behind. Her father had left in the middle of the night so Eve didn’t have the time to say goodbye to him.

“Can you repeat what we have been learning, Ms Monroe?” she asked.

She sighed and began to review the last thing that they had discussed. The philosophy materials that they were talking about was considered heretical to discuss outside of the institution. The study of dust and artefacts that correlates to it was essentials for today’s learning.

“Dust is particles that surround us and affects our way of life. It is said that Dust pertains the secrets of life such as how a dӕmon was created and the bond they shared with their counterpart. The matters itself were considered gods –“

“Ah, as gods, Eve,” she interrupted her.

Ms Mcreedy sighed when she noticed that Eve face frowned in displeasure. Those thoughts of her were dangerous especially if the Magisterium found out about it. Ms Mcreedy knew that Eve was a mere child who still didn’t understand the concept of it all. Dust was a matter that was heavily forbidden to be talked about since the Magisterium believed that it was considered a sin to even talk about it. But alas there was the scholastic sanctuary.

“You have to be very careful about your thoughts on dust, Ms Moreau. The Magisterium wouldn’t allow someone who had different thoughts to enter their rank. Thankfully you are protected by the scholastic sanctuary where those kinds of thoughts were protected,”

Ms Mcreedy began to continue with her lecture while Eve tried to write down what was on the board. Her dӕmon, Betelgeuse, was looking towards the window. They were on the second floor of the college and he was gazing towards the horizon when he noticed something flying in the horizon. There was a helicarier that was landing just outside of the college.

A man walked out of it alongside his dӕmon, a familiar black panther. At that moment, Betelgeuse knew.

Malcolm had returned.

↑

After her deal with the professor, she walked gracefully to the door and closed it rather gently. But when the professor was officially out of her sight, she squealed in joy and Betelgeuse leapt into the air and turned into a dove. He soared and cooed at her in delight. He once again settled into his former form, an arctic fox to be caught by Eve. They spun around together and laughed with joy.

She stopped when a scholar walked past and gave the two of them incredulous look. They smiled sheepishly at him and settled for a bright grin with one another.

“Do you think father will be delighted to hear this?” she asked him.

“Oh I am sure he hears about this already,” Betelgeuse grinned at her.

They ran around the corridor towards Malcolm’s study. It was too far away since the professor’s study was on the other side of the College. Betelgeuse had a brilliant idea so she could arrive in Malcolm’s study in no time.

“Eve, this way! I know a shortcut,” he made a hard left, believing that Eve would follow him.

Eve did because she knew that she couldn’t be too far away from him. A basic rule for a human –or in her case a half-one –was that dӕmon and their companion couldn’t be too far from one another. She read one of her father’s journal that if they were separated they would experience great pain through their bond. She, however, couldn’t explain why since her father took it away from her before she could read more.

She was always rummaging through her father’s thing. He was a stranger that claimed to be her father so she had every reason to absorb any information regarding him. His journal was the most fascinating thing about him. At first glance, her father was considered to be an aloof and cold person. But when she read one of his journals, the depth of his mind was opened by each page she read. It was beautiful, dark, and gritty. Like a bolt of lightning that could only be seen from afar. When she asked why she couldn’t read it, her only answer was a smile and a few simple words.

_“It’s not your time, yet”_

But Yvonne’s nature with her dӕmon was a bit different. She could send her dӕmon, Varushuka, to different places that were far away from her. It was one advantage of being a witch. But, that law on Eve and her dӕmon were a bit different. She was neither a human nor a witch. The law may or may not apply to her. She was not that brave, however, to test the theory. She didn’t want to hurt Betelgeuse even if he said that he didn’t mind.

So that’s why she was following him wherever he wanted to go. They climbed into a staircase near the end of the hall. It was out of sight since the entrance was blocked by an enormous tapestry that hung on the wall. She climbed and found a trap door, Betelgeuse was waiting at the end of the staircase. She tried to push it but found out that the door was quite heavy. He tried to help Eve by turning himself as a white monkey. He pushed it with all his might yet it didn’t prevail. Eve was heaving quite hard when she decided to use her power.

She concentrated hard enough on the trap door. The sound of the wind blowing on the other side of the door, the scraping sound of nail met with wood from Betelgeuse, and the sound of feet tapping against the floor on the hall made it hard for her to focus, until she finally found it. There it was, the sound that she could not comprehend. It was everywhere and gave a different effect on her. In different times, it calmed her. But at times, the sound itself gave an urgent vibe. She couldn’t decipher what it meant. It concerned her but maybe she would postpone on telling her parents because now the sound made a different noise.

Now, it only gave her strength.

With that, she pushed the door gently and it flung out while making heavy noise. Betelgeuse jumped out of surprise, turning himself into a lizard and crawl into her neck out of fright.

“You should be careful in using your power, Eve,” he commented

She ignored him and proceeded to climb out. She ran and jumped from obstacles to another. She stopped on one of the edges and climbed down. She plopped herself on the balcony with Betelgeuse following her on his aves form. She looked through the glass door and saw Malcolm animatedly chatting with his dӕmon, Pandorica. Eve tried to smooth out the creases of her shirt and pat herself to get rid of the dust. She cleared her throat and Betelgeuse changed into a more comfortable form on his own. He morphed into a black cat that resembled Pandorica a bit. Once she found herself representable, Eve knocked on the door and waited for a while.

Malcolm was startled out of his focus and his eye crossed on the balcony. There stood his daughter, with a grin so wide that it looked brilliant in his eyes. Her smile infected him and before he could control himself, a smile came across his lips. He made his way to the door and opened it for her.

“Hi, Dad,” she greeted him.

Without warning, Eve hugged him with all her might and Malcolm had done the same, albeit with a slight hesitancy at first. He wasn’t a very touchy-feely kind of man, but his wife and daughter were a bit different. In any chance, they would greet him with a kiss or a hug. It embarrassed him to no end even if they weren’t in public.

“I have something to tell you,” Eve’s voice was muffled by his shirt.

“Me too, kid,” he told her.

He let go of her and she did the same. He beaconed her to sit down in one of the room’s couch and told her to wait. Malcolm went into his massive stacked suitcase and searched for his gift. Eve, on the other hand, was examining the room. Betelgeuse had gone with Pandorica to the balcony and held a conversation there. It was a big thing for him to talk with Pandorica since he admired her to no end. Eve always encouraged him to do so, but he always said no or later. But now, he had done it and Eve could never be more proud.

Her eyes scanned the disarray room with stacked papers and strewn clothes. The room was usually neat since Malcolm was a bit of an OCD. He couldn’t even see a single pen, not in its place. The room would usually be in a hectic state when he was busy with his research or preparing for a trip. She wondered what kind of research he was doing now. Malcolm made a celebratory noise and bend the knee in front of her.

Eve noticed that he held a rectangular box. It was not a very interesting box, she thought to herself. It had a green colour. She thought that it was a jewellery box at first but it could not be this huge. Malcolm placed it between her hands. She could compare now that the box was as big as her conjoined palm. She turned the box around and even shake it to guess what was inside.

The inside bumped into one side of the box and made a heavy sound. She was rather surprised since the box was rather light. Stranger things could get stranger, she thought. When she went to open the box, a hand covered it up. She noticed that it was Malcolm’s hand that covered it and she only raised one of her eyebrows as a sign of question.

“It shouldn’t be opened now, sweetheart,” he told her.

She folded her hands and tucked it between her armpits.

“And why is it? Might I ask,” she was being a brat that she knew of?

“It’s not your time yet to do so,”

Malcolm only smiled gently and caressed her head. He was swallowing the image of her as he would never look at her the same way again. He was not ready to travel to the North so suddenly again. It had only been a month that he stayed at the College but somehow the Magisterium always found a way so that he could be apart from his wife and daughter.

He didn’t know how long he was going to be away now. His assistance had found an important discovery concerning something about his theory. In the message through the telegraph, his assistance, Madam Dauphine had found a trace of a particle that he had studied for years. A particle which was known to be the most dangerous thing to discuss. A particle that was stretched across the world. And now that same particle was stretching the bond between him and his family.

He knew that if he continued his research, his life would be at stake. And the worst-case scenario was the Magisterium targeting his family. He couldn’t have that and he was not willing to give up the one thing he cherished the most. He might not be there when Yvonne gave birth to Eve but he didn’t deny the love he felt for his daughter.

“I will be going for a long time to the North,” he told her finally.

“Again?” she huffed loudly.

It was not fair. Her father had only been home for a month after nine months of long trips to a country in the North. Eve was robbed of her father’s promise of enjoying their time in Oxford and the College.

“Let me come with you to the North then,” she asked him.

Malcolm’s eyes widened. A brilliant idea would that be. He could always watch her in the North. With that, he could keep an eye on his family and he didn’t have to worry about the Magisterium hunting his arse. But then again, the North was not a place for a child.

Eve took his silence as an agreement and began to hug him. He always hugged her back with the same amount of passion. But now, Eve noticed that he hesitated quite a bit. His hesitance was made up by hugging her and kissing her head with the same passion as he always did.

Eve slept in his father’s arm that night. Malcolm held her in his arms with her dӕmon tucked between her arms. Betelgeuse had turned himself into a white mouse and slid into her neck, warming himself up. Malcolm placed her on the bed and tucked her, leaving her bedroom door slightly open so that his wife could check up on her once in a while.

He made his way to his usual bedroom, finding Yvonne and her dӕmon sitting on the bed, a book in her hand. Her dӕmon, Varushuka, was resting in the foot of the bed. Pandorica made her way to the bedroom and settle beside Varushuka. She yawned and Malcolm might have heard Varushuka asking her how was her day going. Noticing the creaking of the door, Yvonne lifted away from her eyes from her book and greeted Malcolm with a smile.

He loosened his tie and untie his shoes. He laid down beside Yvonne and hugged her. Yvonne could sense a feeling of guilt and worry suffocating his mind. The moment they tied the knot, Yvonne made an oath to never use her gift without consent towards Malcolm. But now without even reading his mind, Yvonne already know what was on his mind.

“She needs to be trained first before she could come with you, Malcolm,” she told him.

Malcolm only sighed and rubbed his head in frustration. Her words were true. The North that was filled with stories from a tribe that kidnapped child and myths of strange particles that could snatch the bonds between humans and their counterpart easily.

“I know,” he told her.

That night Malcolm made up his mind about what he was going to do. He got up from the bed and made his way towards the bathroom. A relaxing bath before his trip to the North would be nice. He closed the door and the rest of the night went smoothly.

Morning came, Eve searched the whole castle for Malcolm. But it went futile when in the last minute, she just began to realize the airporter that had just recently flown was of her father.

He had left her again.

₼

It was another busy day at the bakery. Eve was trying her best to please the couple who was ordering a fancy birthday cake. The couple was probably in their mid-thirties ordering a vanilla cake with a pink frosting since it’s their daughter’s favourite colour. She imagined a white chiffon cake with a hint of lemon covered in the white and pink frosting that reminded her of the Sakura trees that began to blossom this month.

“Please, Ms Moreau. Make my daughter’s day memorable since she wasn’t going well in the academy. We hope that this can cheer her up,” the mother said to her.

Eve took one of the mother’s hand and hold her in attempt to promise her.

“I am doing the best I can so that her eyes will glimmer the first time she sees the cake,” Eve replied with a smile.

This cheers the women up and she began to list the details of the cake. Eve tried to jot down everything that the mother wanted to please her daughter. Her sister, Lily, was watching from the sidelines. Her sister always had that effect on people, Lily thought.

For an eight-year-old, Lily was more mature and perceptive than her friends in the academy. In the academy, Lily was considered a genius and adapt fast to her surroundings. She got help too of course from her dӕmon, Corealanus. Usually, when Lily went to the academy, her dӕmon settled in a smaller form whether it’d be a mouse, or a hamster so that the teacher wouldn’t find her.

With her sister, Eve was taking notes for this specific order. Lily was trying to cover for her in the shop. She was trying to make a cup of coffee for an older man who had ordered with a chocolate éclair. Lily couldn’t help but think that this man had some taste. But before she could finish her job, a crash was heard outside of the shop.

A series of shouting made the customers even Lily and Eve to look outside the window. A boy was caught red-handed for stealing a few canned foods from the shop across from them. The raggedy clothes that barely clings to his body, a few scratches on his face, and the blond locks on his head gave away the identity of who the boy was.

_Naruto Uzumaki_

He was famous for his mischievous and wild behaviour throughout the village. Lily always wondered why he was hated by the entire village and yet she did not dare to find out scared of finding herself in trouble. She was looking towards Naruto in pity but something made her stuck in place.

Her dӕmon, Coreolanus, came out from his hiding place in her pocket and analysed the situation. The people that surrounded him was giving harsh words and throwing him dirty looks. When he looked towards the customer of the shop, they simply disregarded the event altogether. He knew something wasn’t right with this but they cannot act brashly.

The untamed crowd began to throw rotten fruit and vegetables at him. This was too cruel, Lily thought. She was too immersed by the event that she was willing to help him. Before she could make a move however Coreolanus spoke.

“It’s best to just watch unless we wanted to caught in the middle of something we didn’t understand,” he advised her.

Lily agreed with him to some extent but a part of her realised that they could not just stand by and watch.

“But we can’t just stay here and not do something,” she countered.

She was too late to make a move, however. The crowd was already dispersing and left the boy in the middle of the road. Battered, smelled of rotten food, and left without something to eat. Lily was already outside of the shop by that time. Her feet were firmly planted to the ground, refusing to move because she didn’t know what she has to do.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to find her sister Eve trying to guide her back to the shop. Lily could only gaze at her and tried to read her mind.

_What are you trying to do, sister?_

It was as if Eve could read her mind she tried to convey it through eye contact.

_Trust me, Lily. I know what I must do._

After she guided Lily inside, Eve prepared a bag filled with croissant, egg tarts, and fruit sandwiches. She walked outside again and came to the boy. At first, the boy looked towards her in wary. Lily and Coreolanus watched them through the window. Their mouth was moving indicating that they had a few conversations. In an instant, the boy snatched the bag from her hand and sprint away.

It left Eve a smile on her face and she entered the shop with the same smile tattooed on her face. After that day, Lily sometimes see the boy, Naruto, after the shop had closed with Eve having a conversation.

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	8. [Alethiometer]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO MY LOVELIES!!!  
I am so sorry that I have kept you waiting. But I am actually having a writers block not to worry I will keep you all updated with latest chapters. Anyway my university is postponed for two weeks for incubation because of the virus. Hope you all are safe wherever you're from. Be careful if you wanna go outside but if you're like me just stay inside and keep yourself entertained.  
ANYWAY BACK TO THE CHAPTER!!!  
ENJOYYYY

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It was past noon in Konoha. The sun in the middle of August gave an intense heat of summer vibe. While the air was hot outside, the inside of the shop was cool. Eve had casted a simple cooling charm around the house so that the temperature outside didn’t affect the shop. Because of the heat that was rising outside, customers didn’t have the spirit to actually do stuff. So it was not very crowded at the moment which gave Eve a little space to breathe.

She was reading an interesting book about the nature of Chakra. It was a different knowledge all together. The world that she knew of was it was already design and managed by Dust and yet this people called it Chakra. Chakra was an essence of what the Shinobi do in their everyday life. From an outsider perspective, Eve thought that Chakra was pretty much an enhanced particle of Dust. While Dust was an original form of her source of power, Chakra was the evolved version of it.

Because of the interconnection between Chakra and Dust, Eve was fascinated on how it worked. The pages of this book that she had read for the past few days was given to her by one of her beloved customer. I mean she wasn’t supposed to have favouritism but she couldn’t help it. It explained her that Chakra lived in everybody, even the civilian. However, for all the eighteen years she had studied in Oxford College the perception of Dust was that not everybody can use it.

Just because she was half a witch, she could utilize her strength from her mother’s side. Konoha works differently than her perception and how she loved mysteries. Yet, the information about Chakra was limited to this book since information was scarce and precious in this time. Thus, she only had the information on what it was not how do you control it.

She knew that she should have been grateful to be trusted with this kind of information. Eve knew that it was dangerous for a civilian to know this kind of information. The duo that entrusted her for this information will forever be in her debt. The two youthful kids who usually accompany her in a not so hectic day made her monotone life colourful. They were a boy from a prestigious and high clan of Konoha. A clan that represented the spirit of Konoha. An unyielding fire that burn in the heart of every Shinobi and Civilian of Konoha. And right now she could hear the soft whispering of the wind, a sign that they have come to greet her.

“Nee-san, I wanted that chocolate pudding that you have promised me,”

She lifted her eyes that was scanning the pages of the book and was met with a boy with curly jet black hair told her. He was accompanied by his cousin who was the polar opposite of the curly haired boy. The cousin was more on the quiet side. They were the famous Shinobi duo of Konoha. Uchiha Shisui and Itachi.

Shisui was one of the customers who frequently hang out in her shop. He always wanted different things to try and hard to please. But, he commented that his cousin was harder to please since he was a connoisseur in the dessert delicacies. He even said that the best dessert that he tasted was dango and nothing else. So, Eve challenged Shisui to bring his cousin here and bet that she could impress him. Eve even promised Shisui the best chocolate pudding he ever tasted which gave him the fuel to drag Itachi’s ass.

Both boys were inseparable since they entered the academy. It was kind of funny seeing their interaction. Eve always noticed from afar of the bright and shining personality of Shisui always contradict with the toned down and calm personality of Itachi. Shisui always wanted Itachi to be more sociable and yet the latter would rather spend time in his home with his little brother. The length that Shisui would go to make sure Itachi play with him was even more hilarious. Both of their antics always gave her a smile since it reminded her of the time when she was a child.

“One chocolate pudding coming right up with a caramel milk, I presumed,” she answered him.

Shisui gave her a nod and began to make his way to the front counter to sit there. Itachi was trailing behind him, his eyes darted left and right as if he couldn’t believe that there was this kind of shop in Konoha. It felt like he went into a magic shop. Oh how little did he know. He sat himself beside Shisui and began to notice the homey feeling of the shop affected him.

“Here you go, one chocolate pudding with caramel milk mixed with secret ingredients,”

Itachi’s wandering gaze landed on the lady behind the counter. She was ethereal, he thought. The first impression you see if one could see an angel. With her curly ivory hair that fell on her shoulder to her black eyes that felt like falling into an abyss. But the eyes that represent darkness only radiated warmth. He could not quite comprehend what he was feeling but he couldn’t help but look away from her and land on the chocolate pudding in front of Shisui.

“And you must be the famous connoisseur Shisui tells me about,”

Itachi only blushed and tried to deflect her words.

“Well I wouldn’t say I am a connoisseur but I do enjoy sweet delicacies,” he countered.

“This boy right here tells me that you were a hard to please man,” she said.

Shisui only laughed sheepishly and began to dig into his sweet. Itachi only raised his eyebrow. Many people would that be a shinobi or civilian knew him as a person needed to be feared. In truth, he didn’t really like it. But what can he do really?

“More into having a refine taste than hard to please,” he countered.

Eve only raised one of her eyebrow in interest. She gazed at him trying to decipher his personality. One might say that it is impossible to guess correctly what a Shinobi feel because of their expertise to hide everything. And emotion was said to be one of the most valuable secrets. Itachi on the other hand feel a little bit uncomfortable with how Eve looked at him.

Her sharp gaze made him a bit nervous even if he could control his body reaction to actually stab her. Shinobi were trained to have a façade wherever they went. To keep them safe and not give away the secrets of the village. However, Eve thought otherwise.

Eve had a different perception on emotions and façade. She thought that emotions and personality were the reason human beings were an interesting subject. Everybody had different taste.

“I know just the thing for you,” she suddenly said.

Itachi could only raise his eyebrows and watch as she prepared something for him. Eve put something in an oven. Itachi could see a glimpse of what she was making. It was a type of bread with a golden colour and a sugar glaze on top of it.

The interesting thing about the dessert was the smell. A few minutes after she put it in the oven, the smell of cinnamon and apple wafted through out the room. Already he drooled from the vision of what it would be like when it reaches his mouth. He could imagine the crispy yet soft inside of the pastry. Yet, Eve was till busy mixing up something for him to drink. Eve was trying to find that specific spices to mix it up with his chocolate drink.

She went to the other shelf when she couldn’t find on the other. Eve made a celebratory noise when she found a ground up mint leaves in a jar. She sprinkled some of the mints and mixed it up. At the same time, she took the pastry out of the oven and served it to him.

“Here you go. A nice homemade cinnamon roll with a chocolate mint shake,” she told Itachi.

She waited in front of him to see his reaction. Eve put her face between her palm and tried to pin point if Itachi will react the way she wanted. Eve watched as he picked up his fork and cut the cinnamon roll in half. He sniffed it carefully out of his consciousness since he was trained to be careful of his food. Once he knew that it was safe to eat, he put it in his mouth.

The soft texture inside the roll was so much different with the outside of it. The outside taste sweet because of the glazed sugar but what he didn’t expect was the sour taste inside the cinnamon roll. The sour taste came from the apple jam that was handmade by Eve herself. The contrast sweet and sour of the cinnamon roll was the perfect balance in his mouth.

To wash it all down, he drank the chocolate mint shake and –oh lord –if he could moan in public without being judge he probably would. A sweet and bitter with a hint of freshness from the mint washed the sour of the apple jam.

“So how does it taste?” Eve asked him.

Itachi only showed a blank face and shoved another piece to his mouth. Eve waited for him to finish and looked to Shisui. She almost forgot that beside the connoisseur was the cousin. Shisui was looking to Itachi curiously because the former rarely show an emotion towards this feeble thing of life. But Shisui wanted to show him that even if you are a Shinobi in a time of war, you could still enjoy the little things in life.

“I’ve tasted something better but I’m not saying yours is the worst,” Itachi finally said.

Eve only laughed while Shisui felt like Itachi offended her.

“How can you say that? You know that Eve had the best dessert shop in Konoha right?” Shisui gaped at him.

“Oh please no need to worry about it, squirt. I take it as a compliment anyway even if it’s not that much. Besides he only just tasted one of my dessert,” she said.

Eve went to the other costumer who was calling her for another order, leaving the two boys alone. After Eve was out of sight, Itachi turned to Shisui with eyes sparkling. Shisui looked at Itachi with confusion seeping from his eyes.

“She is the most amazing woman I have ever laid my eyes on,” Itachi gushed.

“Do you seriously have a crush on her?” Shisui suspected that it might just be a simple crush on her.

Itachi only blushed a bit and drink more of his shake. Seeing his reaction, Shisui could only laugh at his cousin. Yes, Itachi was widely known as a master assassin by his colleagues but he was still a twelve-year-old boy who had a silly crush on a foreigner shop owner. Shisui thought that it was a cute thing, a few innocent things that was left of him.

Itachi took a glimpse on Eve writing the customer’s order wth a smile on her lips. Her eyes shone with mirth and she was laughing, probably at the customer’s joke. He had heard from the rest of his teammates about a foreigner who build a nice café filled with delicious desserts. But he obviously didn’t really care about it. He would rather put his focus on his training and survival skills.

Konoha was in a state of war that Itachi know of. He didn’t have the pleasure to be a normal teenager especially in this time of need. A shortage of Shinobi on the field made him have less time to spend time on his own. He liked to be burdened with the mission that he was supposed to go but sometimes the effect of mission took a toll on him.

He was already assigned by other to see a psychology once a week. Of course, he always tried to escape his session because he felt as if he didn’t need it. His crush on this foreigner could only be his escape route from the reality outside of the village. His train of thoughts were put to a halt once Eve came back to them. He put out his wallet to pay up. 

“How much is it?” Itachi asked her after she went back to them.

Eve only looked at them while they took out their money. She held Itachi’s hand to stop what he was doing and only smiled at them.

“It’s on the house boys. You can pay me back after I make weasel here confess about how good my things are,” she winked at Itachi.

The latter only stuttered and Shisui only smiled knowingly at her. He grabbed his frozen cousin and walked out of the café.

“Thanks again, Eve. We’ll be back as soon as possible,” Shisui said.

Oh how innocent those teenagers were, was her last thought after they walked away.

↑

Eve was in the middle of the lecture of the Master. Her apprenticeship with the Master was still going after four months she approached him in his office. His lecture was different from what her father taught her.

Malcolm taught her the scientific approach on life such as physics, chemistry, and biology while the Master taught her more about the philosophical approach. She was truly impressed with how the Master way of teaching her. You could say that he found a creative way of approaching difficult subject on philosophy.

This four exciting months of Eve learning with the Master was never spent in the library or even the classroom. His study was always carried around the campus such as the field or garden. She always asked him of why he chose to study in an open field but he always put on a nostalgic smile and said,

“It reminds me of my home too much. Where I come from, you study in an open field about Dust and how you can use it,”

“You can learn how to control Dust?” she asked.

The Master only put on a sheepish smile as if he just disclosed an important information to her. His dӕmon, Hermetheus, only shook her head in amusement. He turned to her for guidance, asking if he should give Eve a little bit insight of what it was. The crow just shook her feather as if telling him to go ahead.

“The Magisterium doesn’t have control where I come from, Eve. There you can learn anything about Dust, how to control it and even use it to your advantage,” he started.

Eve listened very carefully to what he said because the information about dust was rather scarce. Her father didn’t even allow her to learn about dust until she grew a bit older. But her father wasn’t in the College now so she could sneak around a bit.

“Dust, the oh so mysterious particle that the Magisterium afraid of, isn’t so scary. You are connected to Dust whether you like it or not,” he continued.

“Really?” Eve interrupted.

He just nodded and continued.

“An approved theory of what Dust is can only be access by someone with a high clearance. But from what I read, Dust connects you and your dӕmon through an invisible stream. The ties with a human and their counterpart can be so sacred because Dust is involved in it. So be sure that no one touches your dӕmon, Eve,”

She just nodded and looked towards Betelgeuse who was napping beneath the sun. His form hadn’t settle yet and she began to grow worried of it. The Master always told her to not fret about it. His assurance of it settled her even if it’s not that significant.

“Do you miss your home, Master?”

He only smiled at her and ruffled her hair.

“All the time,”

He always carried a blank look on his face as if he was reliving himself through the memory that she couldn’t see. After that, he could continue the lesson like nothing happen. However, this time it’s different. Today, the Master decided to cancel all of her lesson and told her to do whatever she wishes of.

With nothing left to do, she wandered off to the kitchen to help with the maids. She helped them with mincing some meat and ground up some peppercorn. A few hours after, a boy approached her while she was stirring a pot of tomato soup.

“The Master told me to give you this,” he handed her the letter.

Eve took it gently from the boy’s hand and scanned the content of it.

_An important matter needs to be discussed immediately. See me in my office at once._

The letter was signed with a trident that became his signature. She gave the boy a piece of bread as a token of gratitude. He nodded and made his way out of the kitchen. Bettlegeuse slithered out of her front pocket and took a look at the letter. If he had an eyebrow in the form of a snake he probably would have raise it.

“What do you think it is?” he asked her.

“I guess we’re going to find out very soon,” she answered.

She took off her apron and hang it on a nearby wall. Eve made her way out of the kitchen and ran on the hallway. It was afternoon, the sun was low on the horizon wanting to switch places with the moon. The professor was walking rather slowly probably enjoying their day after a terrible lecture.

“Pardon me. Excuse us. Sorry to bother you, Sir,” she pushed her way out of the cramped hallway.

Bettelgeuse transformed himself into a parrot so that he didn’t get trample by the crowd. He laughed at how the professors bumped into her and Eve only rolled her eyes at him.

“Oy, it’s not my fault you can’t transform,” he shrugged.

With a lot of effort of bumping her way, Eve finally made it into his office. The Master was writing a letter that looked quite important since he used this particular quill that came from his home. He looked up to see Lilly catching her breath with Bettelgeuse beside her. He stood abruptly from his chair and guided her to sit on the couch.

The Master gave her a glass of water to hydrate herself and let her breathe for a while.

“You ask to see me, Master?”

He nodded and walked towards a painting. It was a scenery of a waterfall with two gigantic statues on the side. She couldn’t recognize who it was but she guessed that it held a certain memory for her Master. The Master slid the painting, revealing an old safe that he kept for his precious belongings. Eve noticed a bunch of scrolls and books that was kept who knows how long until dust came out the first time the Master opened it.

Eve also managed to get a glimpse of a metal headband but before she could look any further the Master already closed it. The Master was a mysterious person. Nobody know where he came from but somehow he got easily into the College. She couldn’t really question it since the Master was probably the smartest person. Yet, her eyes captured with what the Master was holding.

The Master was holding a velvet box that she presumed contain a jewellery inside. He gave it to her and told her to open it. Inside the box was the most gorgeous golden pocket watch. An intricate mix design of pattern and swirls was carved on the outer rim of it. But, when she opened it, it was not a pocket watch.

_It was very like a clock, or a compass, for there were hands pointing to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little pictures, each of them painted with extraordinary precision, as if on ivory with the finest and slenderest sable brush. She turned the dial around to look at them all. There was an arrow; a peculiar circle; an upturned trident, a bee, a crow…Thirty-six altogether, and she couldn’t even guess what they meant._

_“What is it, Master?” she asked him._

_“It’s an alethiometer. It tells you the truth. Your father Malcolm intrusted me this special device because he cannot give it to you personally. He wanted you to have this,” he explained._

_“I can certainly see it, Master. Ever since his job in the North he never came back home even if mother ask him to come home,” Eve said bitterly._

The Master only stood there in silence and let Eve contemplate with her own mind. She was stuck in her own mind when the Master gave her it. The mere mention of her father gave her a bunch of mixed feelings. She was still saddened by the fact that it had been three years since her father came home. Months after her father went up North and without news, Yvonne decided to go North in search of him. Her parents left her on her own with promise that they would come back as soon as possible.

“You have to understand the circumstances that your father is in, Eve. He doesn’t have much choice to begin with,” he tried to explain it to her.

“Understand? How can I understand when they never tell me anything? How can I understand my father circumstances when he only tells me that it’s not my time to know? How am I supposed to know everything when no one tells me the truth?” she ranted.

A pregnant silence had set between the two of them. Eve finally admitting her own thoughts and the Master trying to process her ranting. He could sympathize with it since he was once in her place. No one likes secret to begin with and he well knew how secret can be awfully dangerous. Yet, he also knew that it was not in his place to give her the answer that she needed. He could only offer her comfort.

“Do you remember what I said, Eve? The alethiometer tells you the truth. Malcolm want you to have this so you can have guidance. He may not be by your side now but with the alethiometer beside you he will feel that he was with you all along. He cannot tell you because he still thinks that you are his little girl. And no father wanted to hurt his little girl, he only wanted to protect you,” he explained carefully.

Eve fully knew of that and yet she still denied it. Bettlegeuse tried to comfort her but wrapping himself in an ermine form. A small form of comfort was the only thing she needed right now.

Eve knew that now she only have Bettelgeuse as her family.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OHH MY GODD!!  
Thank you as well to you who spare me some kudos!! And thank you as well for @dreamingwhileawake for the critics!!  
This story has also reached 750+ HITS!! Can't really believe it!  
Thank you so much to all of you guys who have stopped by this story to read it.  
Don't forget to leave some kudos and comments down below! See you guys on the next chapter


	9. [Alethiometer]

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Itachi never took grief that well. Eve could tell it by his eyes. He would usually space out in the middle of a conversation or when he was enjoying his nice cup of tea that she had made. The only thing that could bring him back from his mind was his cousin or herself by calling on his name. She didn’t know what happen to him but he had been like this for two days. If only she could comfort him.

To be quite honest, Eve had grown too attached to the two boys. After the first time, Itachi came to the shop, the Uchiha boys always stopped by to have a normal conversation. Even if Shisui was the only one who had done the talking mostly, Itachi and Eve sometimes interject. The three of them had lovely banter from time to time.

She couldn’t deny that the two boys were smart as hell. If they went to visit her old home, the scholars and professors would already profess their utter bafflement to them. From, light conversation such as her daily routine and their co-worker’s gossip to heavy topics like political warfare that were hardly discussed by the locals. Their relationship had been happening for two years and Itachi’s crush became significantly larger.

Shisui always teased him about it and always tried to code Eve on the former’s massive crush. The look on Itachi’s face resembled the surprised weasel. She only laughed it all because Eve already knew of his crush and it’s adorable. Her attachment towards the two boys only made her more protective.

“Can I be honest with you, Eve?” Itachi asked her.

He rarely went to the shop alone, yet this was one of the time he tried to find solitude. He didn’t mind Shisui, of course. His bright personality and uplifting spirit became a breath of fresh air for him. Now, he could say that he had found his fortress of solitude amid the people’s chattering and cosy seat.

Eve just shrugged at him and waited for his further response.

“I hate joining this war. I don’t see why we need to do this. All this bloodshed that was spent on the battlefield and heartbreaks of mothers seeing their son for the last time. It feels like we’re in a wheel and not a fortunate one. Yet, I am here joining them to turn the wheel in exchange for what they call ‘peace’,” he ranted.

He got a point, she thought.

The village was in the middle of the 3rd Shinobi war. Cold war to be exact. Just because one stubborn old mule unwilling to compromise in search of power. But, she couldn’t help to notice that the patterns of war were always the same.

“It is true. War is bloody and soulless. There is no denying that so many sacrifices need to be made to win. But do you ever question of why you join it? I mean you could just run away from your duty and yet you still do it. What made you decide?” she asked.

He thought of it. What Eve was saying had some truth in it. He didn’t question himself of why he had done it. He could just flee, take his family, and live a peaceful life in a remote place. Yet, he couldn’t be sure of himself if living like that solve the problem.

“I wanted my brother to live in a world that he didn’t need to know that pain needed to be felt. Unnecessary pain always leads to unnecessary suffering. I’m sure you wanted to do the same for your sister,” he looked at her.

Itachi was surprised when he was greeted with an all-knowing look and a bitter smile. As the firstborn, Eve shared the same sentiment as he did. It is true. She would give anything to make sure that dangerous sentiment was not to be felt by Lily. But, she didn’t have a say in it. She was sure Itachi knew it as well. Circumstances always held her wishes back.

“I do wish I could protect her from this nonsense of war. But, you know we can’t do that. As protective as I am, I know that she needs to learn. The world isn’t as peaceful as we think it is but it’s also as beautiful as it may be,”

He, however, didn’t share the same sentiment as her. Itachi could sympathize her since civilian was rarely told of what happened outside of the fortress they called ‘village’. Yet, he noticed that her optimism was relevant. In this world that was filled with men who seek for power, an innocent ideology is deemed necessary.

“How can you be so sure of it?” he asked for confirmation.

Eve just smiled and served him another cup of camomile tea.

“I don’t. I can only hope,” he smiled bitterly at the reply.

-

The shop had closed down for the day. Eve was cleaning up the kitchen while Betelgeuse was playing with little Sasuke. Ever since she met the boy, the latter had grown attached to her dӕmon calling him beautiful. Betelgeuse the ever vain partner of her took a liking towards the boy and since then always leave her side whenever he can.

It was one of those days where Betelgeuse had left her side in search of Sasuke. Eve let loose some of her power and make the broom sweep the floor and the dishes to wash. Now, she is writing a letter to a dear friend of her. These past few weeks’ things had been rather hectic. The demanding supply for her treats and overflowing costumer had left her frazzled by the end of the day.

However, she couldn’t help but notice a thing. Itachi usually came to the shop with Shisui. But these days, the latter was always unavailable according to Itachi. She didn’t want to pry in case it was something secretive, yet she couldn’t help but wonder. Her writing was stopped when her pocket heated up.

Her left hand went for it and grabbed the alethiometer that her father gave. She couldn’t help but reminiscence her father when it came to it but she didn’t have time to contemplate further. An alethiometer heating up could only mean one thing. Something big is about to happen. She opened it and tried to operate it as best as she could.

She turned one of its’ gears and the needles turned to tell her the answer. A skull with a dagger through it, a crow that was perching on a stalk, and an hourglass were pointed on each needle. A whisper was picked up by her ear. An answer to what was about to happen.

_Balance has been tipped. Find the boy who changed for good._

A crash was heard outside of the shop and Betelgeuse came barrelling into the kitchen. He was in a frantic mode and Eve could feel it through her connection.

“Calm down, Bett. What’s going on?” she told him to breathe first before telling her.

He managed to calm himself down and told Eve what happened even if he told her with stammered in his voice.

“Sasuke …Compound …Blood …Attack!” he managed to spill.

Without another word, Eve cast an invisible enchantment, throw open the window, and soared into the air. The wind was whipping across her face while she tried to track where Sasuke was. She was flying frantically left and right, blinded by her rising emotion. At that moment, she knew she didn’t know where the hell Sasuke was. Eve took a large breath and waited for Betelgeuse. Betelgeuse was on her side immediately after her frantic move. With a calm mind and a racing heart, she commanded Betelgeuse to find him.

“Lead the way, Bett!”

The hummingbird led his human counterpart to where she needed to go. They stopped right above the compound. It was deadly silent and a crackling fire was seen from the tale of her eyes. Smoke had risen and made her blind to what she needed to see. She sank to the ground and blew a gentle wind to ease the smoke.

The sight of corpses and spilt blood greeted her eyes. No sound of wailing babies and even a groan of pain from the adults meant they were all killed. She walked slowly in search of survivors yet found no one. Instead, she was stepping on a burnt body. Bile started to rise from her stomach but she tried to control it.

“Eve, I found him! This way!” Betelgeuse said, waking Eve from her thoughts.

Eve thanked Betelgeuse for that and headed wherever he was going. A large traditional house on the end of the street was void of all light and Betelgeuse went inside fearlessly. She found a kunai lying down on the ground and picked it up. If the attacker was inside, she surely wanted to protect Sasuke and even her at the same time.

She couldn’t help but wonder where the hell is Itachi. He must have attacked the offender somewhere in the vicinity. There’s no way he would have left his brother here alone. Eve opened the front door and stepped into the house. Scarce lighting inside only made it seemed like it was from a horror story.

“Bett, where are you?” she called for her dӕmon.

She called for him a couple of times but was answered by the stillness of the house. She noticed several ripped family pictures that were laying on the ground. The rest of the house remained untouched, however. It seemed the attacker had a family issue with the Uchiha clan, she presumed. Stinging pain in her left side was suddenly felt. A haunting thought came to her mind.

_Someone just hurt her dӕmon._

She sprinted towards a study room near where she was and slammed the door. Betelgeuse was lying on the floor, a man standing next to him. She didn’t need to think further because she already knew who it was. A long hair that was tied in a ponytail and the lines beneath his eyes that stretched across his cheek. It was none other than Itachi.

A bloody sword was on his hand and not further from the two of them were two bodies of the matron and matriarch of the Uchiha clan. Sasuke was lying in front of her writhing from whatever state he was put in. She didn’t take much time to put two and two together. Itachi was the offender. And he just committed a massacre of his own family.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, Itachi. But you better give me an answer as soon as possible or things are about to get ugly real soon,” she stated while pointing the kunai at him.

Itachi just looked coldly at her and lashed at his sword to clean the blood of his people. She managed to catch a gagged that was wriggling inside because of the splash from his sword. Whatever happened to Itachi had completely messed him up and she couldn’t tell what it was. It frustrated her to no end but she needed to put that thought away. In front of her was not the Itachi that was fond of sweet and an adorable little git, there was only Itachi the famous Shinobi of Konoha that just committed a crime that only an insane man would do.

Without warning, Itachi vanished and reappeared right in front of her. The sword was slashed through her but she was quick enough to block it. A cry of battle left her mouth and she began to charge at him. She slashed left and right. He blocked and dodged as swift as he could. He made a fake manoeuvre to the right but Eve was not tricked. She blocked an incoming punch and head-butted him. Itachi groaned in pain and she could see a slight bruise on his forehead. However, a swift kick on her left foot made her lose her balance. He pointed his sword downward and plunged it into the ground. Yet, Eve was fast enough that she managed to dispersed herself to a cloud of golden dust. He was shocked, to say the least, and Eve took that to her advantage. She materialized behind him and kicked Itachi on his bosom. She picked up the sword and threw it away.

Eve managed to disarm him and put him on a hold. She pointed the kunai at his throat and was about to slash it. However, she was distracted by his eyes. His eyes were vacant but at the same time pleading at her to end it. Eve suddenly released her tears because of all her pent up emotions. Not a few hours ago, he was at her shop talking to her as if there was nothing wrong. Now, she was here pointing a kunai at his throat.

Itachi was equally surprised at her tears. He didn’t expect her to fight back –impressively so –and manage to disarm him. All he knew about her was that she was a foreign villager who had a nice little bakery at the end of the road. Whoever she said she was, Itachi began to doubt the truth of it. Yet, he was glad at the same time. He didn’t want to plunge his sword through her heart. He didn’t have the courage for it.

He put a hand to her face and caressed her face. Wiping her tears and tried to trace every single detail about her face. A scar that was not noticeable near her lips and a prominent nose that no other villager in Konoha had.

“Kill me for my mercy, Eve. Please,” he pressed the kunai harder into his neck.

He was willing to die by her hand if that was how he ended. Eve, on the other hand, didn’t reply anything to him but her tears continue to stream downwards even managing to land on his face. However hard she tried, the knife wouldn’t move because something was holding her back. All she saw through his eyes were the splendid time they enjoyed together.

“I am willing to die right here, right now if it means that I’ll die by your hand,” he stated.

Eve cried even harder while Itachi merely closed his eyes in surrender. And with the last cry from her, she threw the kunai and it plunged into one of the walls. Eve lifted herself off of him and walked to Sasuke. She checked up on him and found out that he was still breathing. She moved towards the unconscious Betelgeuse and found out that he was merely knocked out. She picked up the bird and kept him on her palm. After ensuring both of their safety, she looked at Itachi.

He was surprised by a lot of things about Eve this night. His widened eyes and gaping mouth was one of the few evidence she could find. She tried to find her voice and strengthen it so it didn’t crack.

“Go. Leave this place. I couldn’t kill you for it will only hurt me in the end. Whatever you were doing I couldn’t do the job because you’re my friend. So go and hide cause I want you to be safe,”

He picked up his sword and glance at Eve for the last time. He managed to flee before the rest of Shinobi Konoha found her. Itachi was officially declared a wanted man.

↑

“No, Eve. You don’t put that in your mouth,” Yvonne told her.

The mother tried to pull the piece of parchment away from her daughter’s mouth gently. Eve babbled an unsatisfied sound from her mouth and continued her babble to persuade her mother. Yvonne, however, was distracted by the sound of the jangled keys outside of the front door. As if noticing the sudden guest, Eve clapped and laughed loudly. She began to make her way towards the door to greet the guest.

Malcolm opened the front door and was greeted by his precious daughter. His dӕmon following behind him. Pandorica greeted the rabbit and licked him as a sign of love. Varushuka, on the other hand, exclaimed in disgust while the black panther continued to lick him. She babbled at him as if saying greeting to him. The man laughed and picked up his daughter from the floor. Eve giggled because Malcolm tickled her to no end.

“Did you miss me, you big baby? Did you miss your pops? What did you do with your mother all day?” Malcolm asked her.

Eve only babbled in her language since she didn’t have the vocabulary a grown person had. Malcolm only nodded at her and laughed along. Yvonne watched the couple with a smile on her face. The scene in front of her was making her heart warm with so many feelings. She wished she could imprint these kinds of moments between the father and daughter.

Noticing a pair of eyes that were watching him, Malcolm looked towards his wife and smiled. He approached her and kiss her on the lips. Eve made a sour face because of the display of affection from her parents. She tried to separate the two of them yet the latter only laughed. Eve was put down on a couch and Malcolm began to give Yvonne all his time in the world.

“The council is giving you a hard time today, didn’t they?” Yvonne asked.

She could see it from the way his tired eyes scanned the room. Yvonne always noticed how Malcolm’s eyes scanned his surrounding as if he was waiting for an attack. Like his counterpart, his dӕmon always scanned a room before entering it. She always tried to control the urge to pierce his mind but alas she wouldn’t do it. They made a promise to one another about how they would always trust each other. Hence, her promise not to read his mind.

“They always will, my love. Not to mention my insubordination of going back to the North,” he kissed her.

Yvonne paused for a moment.

“They’re sending you back there?” she asked.

Malcolm only nodded and sighed in disappointment. To be honest, he didn’t have much choice when it came to the council’s agreement. Ever since Yvonne came to visit him, the council didn’t like it when he made an attachment to the North. Especially with the Magisterium trying to dig out its’ secrets, personal attachment became a terrible weight. Thus, he was suspended for the time being because of it.

He recently got a piece of excellent news regarding his suspension. The Magisterium agreed to lift it but he was supposed to go straight North and stay there until further notice. Yvonne is not going to like this, he thought.

“I have no choice. They’ll send me first thing in the morning,” he explained.

With that, he began to pack his belongings and left Yvonne to contemplate with the situation. The latter on the other hand was fuming with anger. Malcolm was supposed to accompany her especially with their daughter here. Eve was barely able to remember her father’s face because he was cooped up in his office. She was trying to mitigate the problem but now she was presented with a new problem.

“For how long?” she asked.

“Until further notice,” he replied.

Yes, she needed to step into this as soon as possible.

“And you’re just going to leave our daughter behind? Just like that? You’re going to let the Magisterium tell you what to do without you knowing the cost of it?”

He slammed the books that he was about to pack in frustration. Of course, he didn’t want to leave his family behind but what choice did he have. They were running out of goods and with a child in the vicinity he needed the money as well. Sure, it wasn’t a good circumstance but he needed to make a choice even if it was not a good one.

“Look, Yvonne. I don’t like this at all. Yet, the Magisterium here controls everything. The rations that we have. The clothes that we wear. Even our freaking thoughts they felt the need to control. If I don’t do this, then the Magisterium have a choice to cut it all off. This is not North, sweetheart. Not everything is free here,”

He tried to calm himself down by hugging Yvonne. However, Yvonne stopped him before he could do it. He scanned her face and notice the shock look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Yvonne sprinted out of the room and into the other where they left their daughter. Malcolm tailed her only to see his wife looking up with an awe expression. He sure was rather surprised to see his daughter floating with _Dust _guarding her surroundings. Their dӕmon had the same expression as the two couples were. One in amazement and another in shock.

Yvonne was ecstatic to know that Eve had inherited some of her clan’s gift. Malcolm, on the other hand, was in shock since his daughter could use the material so easily. The Magisterium had sent him North to further investigate the nature of _Dust_. On his last journey, he came close to figuring out what _Dust _was before the Magisterium wanted him out of there. Now, they would like him to continue his research because of a recent event that the Magisterium would like to investigate.

A man had claimed that he had seen a portal made out of _Dust_ was seen in the outskirt of a town in the North. The Magisterium claimed that it was a spreading hoax to cover up that it was a heresy to talk such spiritual things. Yet, here he was present for a natural occurrence regarding _Dust._

Eve floated down and plopped herself in her mother’s arm. The child, however, didn’t notice about the strange event. She closed her eyes and nap in Yvonne’s arm. She cradled the child close to her heart and pat her to sleep. She noticed the raging thoughts on her husband mind.

“There are so many things that you need to learn from my people. Her show of power is not an act of heresy but a blessing from _Dust_. Please, don’t be afraid of her,” she told him.

Malcolm wasn’t afraid of her but only looking at his daughter in wonder. All of his time cooped up in the study room trying to decode of _Dust_ yet the answer was close to him all along. He had a wife that came from a tribe that control said particles and a daughter of his that resembled his wife. He had his answer all along.

“Yvonne, I might find a way to delay my departing to the North,” he smirked.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: OHHH MYYY GODDDD. I can't believe it that over 1k hits and 38 kudos. Thank you guys soo much for the support on the story. I am so grateful that this story could entertain the lot of you. If you wish to see another story of mine, please check it out on my page. The story is called Northern Lights. If you are interested in Kpop then check it out. Once again THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ATTENTION. DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT, LEAVE A KUDOS, OR EVEN SUBSCRIBE TO THE STORY. LOVE YOU GUYS <3


	10. [Alethiometer]

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↑

The wind was blowing because of the strong inertia of the helicarier. Eve was standing not far away from the landing area. She was waiting hopefully for her father. He was missing for almost a year without a letter or even a word from his colleagues. Eve was worried since it had caused a great burden for her mother. Yvonne’s heart was filled with worry and her mind, on the other hand, was washed up by unnecessary thoughts. Yet, their hope was vanquished when they come up empty-handed. No letter, no words from his colleague, nothing at all.

Many what if’s had come up in her mind. She didn’t want to worry her daughter with her thoughts since she didn’t want to distract her from her studies. It was a rare opportunity for the College to accept Eve as a scholar. Eve wasn’t blind from the staring eyes and whispers of other scholars calling her half-breed and freaks. It was unheard of for a man with such high status as her father to have a love child with her mother, a witch of the North. The staring eyes and whispers only fuelled Eve to show them that being a half-breed had nothing to do with her ambition.

Yvonne, of course, noticed the hard work her daughter was putting in. Yet, her gnawing thoughts only ate away her mind and she had no choice but to went to look for her husband.

“You’re leaving?” Eve asked.

“I had no choice, Eve. I will be back in two weeks if I can,”

Yvonne took a bag from the closet and began to crammed necessary things such as dresses, undergarments, and toiletries for her journey. Before she began to search for her husband, she looked for clues in his messy study for two days straight. She found out that the Magisterium decided to held a ball not too far North from where he was. Yvonne couldn’t be sure that he will attend it but she needed to try first.

“But who is going to take care of me while the both of you gone?” Eve asked her.

“Don’t worry. I have contacted the Master to take care of you while I’m gone. You are in safe hands,”

“I don’t want to be taken care of by the Master. I want my parents,” Eve glared at her mother.

“And you will have us when I find your father!” Yvonne yelled at her in frustration.

Yvonne carried her bag and waited for Varushuka to hop downstairs. The grey-furred rabbit was chatting away with his daughter dӕmon. He could feel the tension between the mother and daughter and decided to break it apart. Varushuka tried to calm down Yvonne by petting her legs. The motion did calm her down a bit thus her daughter’s tears were noticed.

Yvonne crouched to Eve’s height and embraced her. She tried to wipe her daughter’s tears away while keeping hers at bay. The mother didn’t like this predicament as much as her daughter. But, Malcolm did this always with reason. She may not like it but she knew that what he had done was also necessary. That was why she needed to find him. Assisting him was what she wanted.

“You remember what I told you that night before father went back to the North?” Yvonne tried to console her.

Eve sniffed and answered her mother.

“A strong family is a family that always sticks together,”

Yvonne, however, shook her head and left Eve to wonder. Her mother always told her that throughout her twelve years of living. Thus, her strong belief that family always need to stick together. But nowadays, with her father gone and her mother leaving her side for the first time, she didn’t have much faith in the saying.

“Then what is it, Mother?”

“A strong family is a family that no matter where they are or what they do, you will always trust them with all your heart. Remember that Eve,”

Eve only nodded and Yvonne took a deep breath while steadying herself. She picked herself up and make her way towards the front door. Varushuka, her dӕmon, signalled Eve to crouch down to his height. The rabbit hugged her with all of his might. Eve tried to withhold her tears but the longer he hugged her the harder it was to dam her tears.

Varushuka had taken care of her while her mother was busy with helping her father. The latter’s findings of Dust and its’ essence had reached a breakthrough and Yvonne took several details of his work to correct the missing part of it. It took a lot of their time and thus spared so little for their daughter. Their dӕmon always kept her entertained throughout those lonely nights.

Eve had already said goodbye towards her father dӕmon, Pandorica. They shared laughed filled goodbyes since the black panther promised her that they will see each other soon. Yet, reality struck Eve with Pandorica’s absence and Varushuka’s sad smile.

“It’s not going to be forever, Eve. One day you will be able to see the North with us together,” the rabbit said.

“You promised that?”

The rabbit nod and crossed his heart. Next, he went to the little girl’s dӕmon. It was a surprise to him that the young one hadn’t taken a permanent form. Some might call them a late bloomer but he knew otherwise. He just hoped he could see his son transformed into a marvel to look at. Yet, he knew he couldn’t hope much.

“Best be on your behaviour now. Look after one another since you don’t have anyone else but yourself,”

The younger dӕmon who had taken the form of a squirrel nodded reluctantly. He didn’t want to admit it but the rabbit was right. They had no one but themselves. The two of them were left on their flat while watching from afar where they could see Yvonne and Varushuka went inside the helicarier. Taking them to the North.

-

Eve’s day couldn’t get any better. Her father’s helicarier had arrived at the College. But, she couldn’t greet her parents because of her schedule of the class. Now, she was in the class of Ms Mcreedy going in and out of the lecture. Her body was there yet her mind was elsewhere. She was trying to plan for her escape and she just needed a good chance to do so.

And she might know a good distraction for it.

“Ms Mcreedy, I would like to review on the Dust forms and their history on it, please,” Eve interrupted.

“But we just reviewed them two weeks ago, Ms Moreau. We have to continue the lesson –“

“Please, Ms Mcreedy,” she tried to persuade the professor by putting a warm smile at her.

The latter was not persuaded in the least yet Eve’s dӕmon tried too. He leapt off the window’s edge and crept into Ms Mcreedy’s leg. The stern woman caught sight of his new form of a puppy dog. He widened his eyes and give her his best stare. She could only sigh and turned to Eve, a tight-lipped smile plastered on her face.

“Alright, I guess we can review on that. I’ll be back in a moment,”

Ms Mcreedy went away to her study room to collect her materials. The gecko form of her dӕmon was hanging tight on her shoulder. Her robes swayed in the hall of the College. The blowing cold wind of December was upon them. She tightened her robe while the gecko told her to speed up. While they went into their chamber, Eve was planning her next move carefully.

It was going to be a long walk between Ms Mcreedy study to the classroom. Looking through the window, she noticed that she was about seventeen-foot from the ground. Even if she was on the second floor, the College architecture was of the ancient times dating back from when Queen Victoria was still alive. The old stone walls and high ceilings made it impossible for Eve to jump from where she was.

Of course, she had the option to use her magic and simply float down to where she needed to. Yet, she didn’t have the confidence to use it. In theory, she understood how to control the magic around her and simply let it course with nature. Realistically it was harder to do considering one must have a calm mind to project it.

She opened the other side of the window and saw the rooftop where she could make her way. She could climb to the other side. The last thing she needed to consider was where her father was. It was hours ago when he landed. So, he could be in College now. She knew that there was a council meeting and her father must be there. She just had to make sure.

“Bett, I have a plan,” she notified her dӕmon.

“What do you need a boss?”

“Remember when Mother told us about how we can track down people using our Dust?”

“I guess so,” Betelgeuse tried to remember.

“Okay, we just need to focus on what we are trying to find and let ourselves go. Remember, Bett you are my anchor to this realm. If you feel that you are losing strength just pull me out,”

“You got it, boss,”

The puppy settled himself in her lap and the girl tried to focus on her surrounding by closing her eyes. She focused on the birds chirping outside of the window, the cold wind blowing outside and the sound of the helicarier that flew above her. She imagined the outline of the classroom. The rusty windows, dust-filled bookshelves, and peeling wallpaper. She imagined it all.

And when she opened her eyes, her once colourful world was changed by a hue of black and white. She looked towards her dӕmon and saw the Dust particle flowing like a stream of the river between them. She was in the Nether realms where most Dust particles reside. She went outside of her body and tried to find her father as soon as possible. One reason that she needed to do it fast was the consequence of doing so.

One cannot be in the nether realms long since it is proven fatal to said person. Witches before her tried to do the same and lost their dӕmon in the process. The nether realm absorbs one Dust until none was left of it. The after-effects were awful as well. She had never seen the event with her own eyes but she could imagine it. A dӕmon was an essential part of yourself. A representation of your soul to be exact. Imagining oneself without a soul was something that she did not want to dwell.

“Okay, Eve focus on the task on hand. Dust, take me to where my father is!” she commanded.

A steady trail of Dust emerged in front of her. She trusted that the Dust would lead her to where she needed to be. She went into the corridor and followed along until she reached the stairs. Taking herself down, she watched the courtyard empty of people. Of course, the reality was far from what she sees. The nether realms worked on one imagination. Her imagination was only of her father thus the absence of people in her nether realms. They weren’t gone. They were there just in a shadow form. Eve could only see the transparent outline of the crowd.

Yet, it became her advantage since she could spot her father easily. He sported him outworn backpack on his shoulder and coat. She would have noticed her father everywhere she went even if he had outgrown his hair and sporting a light moustache. However, she was distracted by the little bundle in his arm. But before she could investigate what it was, she was suddenly pulled back to reality.

“I’m sorry, Eve. I had to do it otherwise we would have been caught by Ms Mcreedy,” Betelgeuse started.

On signal, the echoing footstep of said professor could be heard in the corridor. Eve immediately jumped outside through the window. She managed to crawl safely on the rooftop and ignored the shouting of the professor. Her adrenaline was on the rush because of the wind that was blowing on her face and the constant trying of not falling seventeen feet to the ground.

“Slow down, Eve! You know that we cannot be apart from each other for long,” Betelgeuse pleaded.

The dog was trailing behind her quite far and with the adrenaline gone, she could feel the strain between their bond. To ensure the safety of their journey without hurting one another, Eve picked Betelgeuse and carried him down.

“Do you know where you’re going, Eve?”

“I saw Father in the courtyard. I had a hunch that he may want to meet with the Master before the council meeting,”

She reached down a ledge and told Betelgeuse to hold on to her. She lowered herself as safely as possible and dropdown. She still on the second floor of the building and just need to make her way towards the stairs, climbed down, and crossed the courtyard. She could make her way towards the servant corridor so that she could reach the Master’s study faster.

She put Betelgeuse down and made him walk beside her. Once she saw that he was steady, they began to make their way.

“Why didn’t you turn, Bett? You always do that on every occasion,” she asked him.

“I tried to, Eve. But, I couldn’t do that and I don’t know why,”

It was curious indeed. She didn’t have an answer for it but she decided not to dwell on it anymore. She had a very momentous meeting with her father that she had long to see for months. Not to mention her mother who was also chasing her father to the North. She was wondering where her mother was. Usually, she was beside her father especially after the last commotion that they have. Maybe she was at home already sleeping.

With excitement, she went to greet her father but stopped midway. The master and her father were having a rather heavy argument. She watched out of curiosity with Betelgeuse perching on her shoulder.

“Eve, we shouldn’t be doing this,”

Eve shushed the bird up and tried to watch the intense argument. She watched it when they were already in the middle of it all. What she didn’t know that it will only escalate further into chaos.

“That is madness, Malcolm! What you do is going to raise many questions from the board,” the master argued.

“Well, she left me with no choice. I have to take an action between two lesser evil,” her father countered.

“What lesser evil? Both choices will only leave horror and destruction on your path!”

“My path be damned! All I care is that my children are safe and –“

“You don’t get to say that, Malcolm! Your action will only cause your children to suffer for their father sins!”

“Like yours do?”

The master booted his table and grabbed Malcolm by his collar. He knew that Malcolm said this out of spite. The latter was grieving of a choice that no one should make but was faced with. He backed away when Malcolm’s dӕmon growled at him. The master’s dӕmon also went into defence but the master told the crow to step away from this. He put his hand up in surrender and plop himself down on the couch.

The master rubbed his head to ease his pain and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was more worried about Eve. She was still a child and he wanted to preserve that. Yet, she was left with this reality to wake her up. It was not an easy wakeup call but he knew what she was going to feel. He too had the same brutal wakeup call but at least Eve had someone to relieve it for a while.

After his emotion settled, the master began to wonder what Malcolm was going to do. Moreover, what he was going to tell Eve.

“What are you going to tell her, Malcolm? You can’t lie to her you know that right. She is too smart for her good. Just like you,”

Malcolm only smirked at that.

“I will tell her little by little. She may not understand as of now but I know that later on, she will piece it together,”

“And how do you know that?”

“I didn’t. I have faith in her,”

The bundle in his arm suddenly cooed at him and Malcolm gave his attention to her. Eve was frozen in shock of the revelation. There laid in her father’s arm was a small baby girl. The tuft of blonde hair on her head and mesmerizing blue eyes catch her attention. She didn’t know that it was her baby sister that would later be an essential part of her journey.

The baby caught her stare and smiled albeit a sleepy one at her. Eve tried to catch her attention but was proven futile. The latter was falling in love slowly even if she didn’t know her name. An unexplainable bond was forged the moment both of them laid eyes on one another. She couldn’t exactly control herself but she went out of her hiding place to finally meet her father.

She was so caught up with today’s event that she didn’t notice that Betelgeuse couldn’t change in the next day. His form had settled into a beautiful hummingbird. Pandorica congratulated him but he always wondered where the grey rabbit went. Malcolm always told both of them that Yvonne was still in the North going back to her tribe on her own. Yet, something was gnawing in their hearts that it was something more than that.

Only time will tell.

֍

It was a joyous occasion for the Village Hidden in the Leaf. The initiation ceremony for the academy was starting and Naruto was in a joyous mood. A happy Naruto always led to a very annoyed Lily. She was, of course, delighted to hear that Naruto got the chance to learn in the academy. However, she was not a morning person while the boy was.

His chatter about how excited he was led to a series of a sleepless night in the household. Lily took most of the hit since Eve was quite busy with the shop so she had to entertain him. She was delighted from time to time yet she needed a bit of a rest from all of this commotion. Thank heavens, she did not go to the academy. Otherwise, she would have gone mad with his endless chatter in the class and at home.

Eve even had to close down the shop for the morning to take Naruto. She convinced Lily to come with a promise of a chocolate custard pudding on the way home. She sprinted after she heard chocolate custard pudding and Eve only smirked. Now, the three of them was on a happy march toward the academy.

“Still Lily I can’t believe that I manage to pull myself into the academy. I thought I would have failed somehow,”

Lily snorted at that.

“Barely, if it weren’t for my sister you would have failed in the long way, my boy. Don’t get too cocky,”

Lily put him in a headlock and messed his hair more. Naruto only groaned and tried to pull himself out of her grasp. However, he failed to know that Eve was so much taller than him an advantage that he didn’t have for now.

“Hey, knock it off! Eve, Lily is bullying me right now!”

The older sister looked behind her to see Lily letting go of Naruto and putting an innocent smile at her. The boy only glared at her and went towards Eve.

“It is nothing but a lie, sister. Trust me for I did not do anything that he accused of,”

“Big words for a little girl there, Lily. I was watching the whole time,”

“And how do you do that, my sister?” Lily raised her eyebrow.

The older girl only looked up and saw Betelgeuse flying not too far away from them. She could have sworn Betelgeuse was winking at them and it only agitated her. Lily only glared at her sister while the latter smile broadened.

“Traitor,” she mumbled.

Naruto only grinned at her and stick his tongue out. It only agitated her more when he saw the linking hand between the boy and the elder sister. She wouldn’t admit it, of course, but she would be a little insecure about the bond that was shared between Eve and Naruto. She had spent the majority of her life with her sister for seven years. With the absence of both parents, Eve took care of Lily since she was twelve.

It took a while for Eve to get the hang of it but once she did Lily couldn’t even be more grateful for her. Now, this sly kid who Eve picked up to nurture decided to stumble upon their home. Lily couldn’t help to feel a little bit threatened. She could see how the two would share a few laughs here and there. She felt left behind from it.

To calm down her disturbing thought, Lily squished herself between the conjoined hand of Naruto and Eve. The former only groaned and complained while the latter gave Lily a knowing look.

“Lily, is there something bothering you?” she tried to calm Lily down for whatever’s bothering her.

Lily only shook her head and stared at the ground. Eve frowned and thought about another way for Lily to open up to her. Her little sister had a little problem with voicing her thoughts and Eve tried to solve it. She knew that it will be a long way ahead but it will be worth it in the end.

“Look! We’re here!” Naruto interrupted.

The boy sprint to the academy ground and began to marvel its surrounding. He dragged Lily around the ground in excitement and forgot that Lily was not as athletic as him or even energetic.

“Slow down, Naruto! You are making my dӕmon uncomfortable,”

Yet, it was too late. The white ferret on Lily’s shoulder, Coreolanus, had emptied his stomach on her shoulder. Lily looked blankly at Naruto while the latter only laughed sheepishly.

“Sorry there, Lils. I forget that you take Corry with you,”

“You idiot! Of course, I would bring him along. You know I can’t separate from him,”

Eve looked at the both of them in amusement. The two always bicker on a daily basis at home and left Eve in amusement or annoyed mood. Their bicker was always something either two fight for something petty. For instance, their fight last night was about how Naruto was taking too long in the shower. It was a nasty habit of his according to Lily. She knew that the bill for water was running high this month and with Naruto taking a long shower didn’t help at all. It was quite funny seeing two seven years old fighting things as such. Yet, their fight never escalated to something big and Eve could thank the heavens above for that.

The people were starting to gather and watch the two of them bicker. Of course, many onlookers were throwing Naruto dirty stares. Eve smiled at that people and they just smiled back in embarrassment. The first time the villagers knew that Eve had taken him under her wings people would only call her mad or throw a pity look at her. Whispers of how a sweet woman could take care of a beast was not an unusual word that had reached her ears.

“Okay, you guys. Settled down! Naruto tried not to forget that Lily is a little bit different than you,” Eve scolded.

Naruto apologized to Lily and the girl only nodded at him since she was too busy cleaning up her shoulder. She tried to wipe Coreolanus with wet wipes and the ferret only slapped her hands off him.

“Nee-san!” someone shouted.

The unmistakable voice of Shisui was heard across the academy. The boy had no sense of public space and just screamed at Eve like that. She tried to push down her embarrassment and waved at him. Behind him, Itachi was trailing with a boy of Naruto’s age. The noticeable onyx eyes of an Uchiha and his untamed black hair made him look adorable.

Deducting said things and what the two boys had told her the day before, this is Itachi’s little brother Sasuke. She could finally see the boy since the two of them, mainly Itachi, who was always the topic conversation. The older brother always told her about how cute Sasuke was or how mature he was for his age. Shisui always interjected her with details of said stories with comments such as –‘yeah, don’t believe him, Eve. He is way worse than this. He always makes gogo eyes at him and sometimes my brain froze with what to do with this information’ – and left her laughing like crazy with how Itachi was red with embarrassment.

Now, she got to see this boy in the flesh.

“Hey, Eve-san. I see that you are taking Naruto for the initiation,” Itachi greeted her.

“Well, I couldn’t leave the boy behind,”

They noticed that Shisui was conversing with the other two children. Naruto seemed pretty excited from what Shisui was telling him. He could see the boy’s eyes glittering in excitement while Lily seemed to be as excited as him. The little boy who had taken refuge behind Itachi’s took note of his cousin’s interaction with the boy who was as bright as the sun and the girl with hair as golden as hay.

“Anyway, where are your parents?” she asked.

“They’re still at home. They told us to go first since someone was a little bit impatient,”

“Hey, I was not impatient!” the silent boy finally interjected.

Both of them finally looked towards him and Sasuke flinched in surprise. Eve’s sharp eyes made Sasuke cowered in fear and embarrassment but Itachi encouraged him to approach her.

“It’s okay, Sasuke. She is one of my friends. Little brother, I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine, Eve. Eve, this is my little brother, Sasuke,”

However, what caught his attention was not Eve but something that flew near her. It was the prettiest bird that he had ever seen. The bird’s colour of green mixed with blue and white highlight looked glossy in the morning sun. Its’ intelligent eyes observed him the way Eve had yet it didn’t intimidate him. He was hypnotised by the bird and unconsciously tried to pet it. The bird bit his hand to warn him and Sasuke yelped in surprise.

“Sorry about that. Bett didn’t like being touch by anyone else,” Eve apologized at him.

“No, it’s okay, Nee-san. It’s just that he looks really pretty,”

“Thanks, kid! I’ll take that as a compliment,” the bird spoke.

To say the least, Sasuke was not expecting the bird to talk and introduce himself as Betelgeuse. After that, the little boy and Betelgeuse formed a bond and talk now and then after his class in the academy.

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	11. [Alethiometer]

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The front door of the shop slammed open and the sound bouncing off its’ walls. It attracted a few costumers to look upon the commotion. They were rather annoyed when they found out that it was just a team of Genin that was adored by the owner. The trio children with their unusual hair entered the shop followed by a Jounin that happened to be their teacher.

Eve who was dealing with an order looked up from the customer and faced the front door. She excused herself from the customer with a smile and told them that their order would be with them in a moment. The trio took a seat on a counter near the cashier with their teacher who looked uninterested. Eve walked behind the counter and served them a glass of lemonade.

“Seems like you have a good day today. What have you done now boys and girl?” she asked.

Naruto perked up and looked towards Eve in excitement. He was about to tell her long stories about their day that was filled with missions. Knowing that Naruto was going to exaggerate the stories, the pink-haired girl shoved him and proceed to tell her the stories. The latter only pouted and turned to his drink. The sour taste of the lemonade washed off the long day he had. So he let it slide since Sakura didn’t see Eve every day.

“We just had a nice couple of mission, Eve-san. We babysat someone, took a stroll with some dogs, and clean out the river. Oh! I’ve got to tell you something. When they cleaned out the river, Naruto and Sasuke had a bit of an accident,” she told her.

“Oh, are the boys okay?”

The boys in questioned choked on their drinks. He remembered exactly what happened and memory of Sakura watching it unfold was humiliating. That was the second time he touched lips with Naruto. The first one was to be kept secret by Lily but she couldn’t keep it off and finally told Eve. Let’s just say, the weeks after that was filled with knowing looks and words that he couldn’t imagine Eve said.

It happened in the afternoon after team seven had finished team mission that Kakashi had dubbed it as a test. The team almost flunked but pass either way. It was all thanks to Naruto. Even if he was a little bit thick in the head, Naruto made it up with his sense of camaraderie. Eve was making a feast to celebrate for their graduation. Even after they ate in Ichiraku she decided that a proper celebration must commence. She even invited the rest of the team but Sakura was needed at home and Kakashi just left without saying a word.

So now, the three teenagers were waiting at the dining table. The smell of grilled tomatoes seasoned with rosemary and thyme wafted in the air. Sasuke saw Naruto drooled and make a disgust expression towards the latter. Lily seemed not to notice too deep on a book.

“Wipe that drool from your mouth! You are so disgusting,” Sasuke sneered.

Naruto only glared and retorted back.

“Please, don’t even argue that you can’t wait to eat it,”

“It’s true but unlike you, I can control myself,”

“Yeah right. Said the guy who pukes from overeating in the land of waves,”

“You did too,”

They went back and forth like that as usual without knowing that their faces inched closer and closer. However, they were interrupted by someone clearing their throat to get their attention. Eve was standing there a hot pot in hand. She opened the lid and the trapped smoke wafted into the air. The three could see that Eve went all out with the dish.

Seafood soup seemed to be the main dish for today. Sasuke took note of the red soup that smelled sour and spicy. He couldn’t wait to try it while Naruto was beaming at the sight of prawns and other sea delicacies. Eve went back to the kitchen to retrieve a few more items such as grilled tomatoes –Sasuke’s favourite –and other side dishes including pickled radishes.

“I thought you two had done fighting. Well, I guess my prayers aren’t going to be answered tonight,” Eve sighed.

“Sister, I think your prayers aren’t going to be answered ever. With those two so close with each other, I’m just waiting for them to resolve this sexual tension,” Lily snorted.

The boys who were eating peacefully was now looking towards Lily. The other sister, however, didn’t get the joke at all.

“Whatever do you mean by that, Lily,”

Lily just smirked and the boys paled in return. She didn’t hold back on anything and even exaggerating details that didn’t happen. Sasuke interjected once in a while when he knew that Lily was going overboard. But he was replied by a statement that didn’t put him to sleep that night courtesy of Eve.

_ ‘You know where I’m from it’s okay for you to love –‘_

He went off to his room not wanting to hear the rest of it. Sasuke glared at Lily every time she tried to talk to him. But, it was proven to be futile since she was always pestering him. Lily had a knack to be very persuasive especially when he sulked. One thing Lily claimed to know about Sasuke’s weakness was his love for animals. Being the ever clever girl, Lily whispered to Coreolanus and the dӕmon will just rub himself into Sasuke’s feet. The boy would melt in an instant and pet him –depending on the form he had taken.

Naruto put a hand on her lips to stop what she was about to reveal to Eve. The latter only smirked in triumph for the disturbance that she had caused. Eve only raised an eyebrow in question and turned towards Sasuke for an answer. The boy just shrugged and went back to reading the menu in front of him. It seemed that the sister had changed the menu while he was gone on a mission. The blackboard that used to contain a speciality of the month –a strawberry fluffy cheesecake accompanied by espresso –was changed into a tiramisu chocolate mousse.

Sasuke didn’t fancy desserts and it was rather ironic that he called a dessert shop his home now. However, a stomping sound of shoes meeting with wood brought him from his daydreaming. Lily usually untamed hair was kept in a ponytail was the first sight that greeted him. A thick leather book was placed in her armpit while in her hand laid the alethiometer. The artificial light rebounded from the golden compass that caught his eyes. He remembered that night where Lily had woken him up, excited that Eve had given her the compass.

Lily’s eyes were trained on him and gave him a look of excitement. It looked like she had found an interesting thing regarding the alethiometer. Sasuke remembered distinctly of countless nights without rest that he had been spending with Lily regarding the golden compass. He was interested in this compass because it was said to be a source of answer said the two sisters. He didn’t understand what it meant but he knew even if he was tired that night he didn’t imagine the ghost of golden dust surrounding them that night.

Last night, Lily had woken up Sasuke to try to figure out what the compass could do. She had shaken him up and he almost pulled out the kunai that was hidden underneath his pillow in case of an attack. But he was greeted with golden locks that belonged to Lily and sighed in relief.

“What the hell you woke me up from Lils? It’s literally two in the morning,” he groaned when he glanced at the clock. His body was still sore from the long mission in the land of the waves.

“I know that I could’ve woken you up in the morning but you rarely have time for me anymore and I thought you might want to see this,” Lily pouted.

Sasuke could only sigh. He was feeling rather guilty since that day after they came home from the land of waves. He didn’t want to cause such a fuss with the sisters who had graciously provide him home thus never telling them about what happened. The sisters got the watered-down version of what happened in the land of the waves and left out the part where Sasuke went under.

But there was a feeling in his guts that told him that Lily didn’t believe him. However, she didn’t pressure him with the matter knowing that he needed his space. He went into a constant state of negativity where he blamed himself on his lack of experience on the field. Sasuke trained hard day after day until he couldn’t even stand anymore. He was usually greeted with the silence of the shop.

He trudged on upstairs and was greeted by Eve who was nursing a cup of tea in hand and a book in the other. The lights were already out and the sound of faint snore was heard behind the door of Naruto’s room. That man was loud even if he is unconscious, Sasuke thought. Eve never asked questions where he went and just pour him a cup of tea. She always told him that she had prepared him a bath and told him to go straight to bed.

He felt immense guilt since he thought that he was going to be nagged. At least, he had every reason to grew annoyed at her for nagging him. He would always be reminded of how his mother nagged him when she was still alive. And the thought that Eve was trying to replace her festered and grew foul in his mind. But to his shock and relief, she didn’t do it. Sure, she provided a room for him to settle, a bed to rest, and food to satiate his hunger but other than that she was different from his mother.

All the more reason to feel guilty.

Sensing his distress, Lily’s dӕmon jump out of his spot on the foot of the bed and settle himself between Sasuke’s legs. Coreolanus form had changed again, Sasuke noticed. The once white ferret became a platypus. He noticed that his form seemed to change less frequently and he began to wonder of the reason. Sasuke remembered distinctly that the sister’s dӕmon form would become permanent when they reached adulthood.

Yet, it was still quite a mystery on how Lily is going to reach that. However, he looked forward to it.

“You okay kid?” Coreolanus asked him.

He only sighed and turned to Lily while petting her dӕmon. It took the platypus quite a while to warm up to him because the idea of touching someone’s dӕmon was considered personal. He found out about that when he tried to pet Betelgeuse for the first time. Let’s just say his right hand didn’t end well since the hummingbird attack him numerous times.

“So what are you going to tell me?”

That put Lily’s excitement on the rise. She plopped down on to his bed and the owner of said bed scoot over to make some space for the girl. Coreolanus made himself comfortable by squishing himself between the two. That was when Sasuke noticed that she had brought the alethiometer with her along with an old-looking leather book.

Sasuke noted that the book was some kind of journal from the elegant handwriting. It couldn’t belong to Eve since he knew that her handwriting was more of a chicken scratch. Yet, it couldn’t possibly belong to Lily as well. He knew that Lily didn’t do cursive handwriting because she thought it was a hassle to do so.

“So, whose book is that?”

“It was my father’s. He left it in our possession before we came here,” she said tensely.

Sasuke merely nodded since he knew how tense it was to discuss her parents. He didn’t know why but he could pick up a few things from the sisters that both of them wasn’t willing to talk about their past. The two of them was like any other sisters always bickering or gossiping. Yet, when it came to their past Eve always held fury from how she clenched her fist or holding her breath. Lily, however, looked at her sister with sympathy and regret. It wasn’t in his jurisdiction to asked towards them what happen. So, he approached the matter the same way Eve approached him.

All in due time to open the hearts where the pain was built.

Lily was busy opening the pages that were filled with symbols and scriptures regarding said symbols. He couldn’t read it since it was in another language. Regardless of the language barrier, Sasuke was still fascinated by the golden compass. Said compass that was displayed in front of him was open, the beautiful colour of it was glinting brightly from reflecting the moonlight.

“Look at this. The writing said that there used to be thousands of compass before it was destroyed. Only three remaining compasses were left in the world,”

“So the compass in your possession was the last remaining three?” he asked.

Lily nodded and continue to read the passage.

“The last remaining one that I have discovered was in the outer region of Svalbard. A hidden town on the north was where I began my research on the alethiometer. The locals told me that the alethiometer was destroyed by the Magisterium –“

“Why the hell did they do it?” he interrupted.

“I don’t know the passage ends there. Wait there’s more,”

Sasuke began to scoot closer –minding Corealanus, he almost forgot that the fox was listening –even if several questions were popping in his head. First of all, what is the Magisterium? He didn’t remember his father discussing with him when he went on the academy. The mention of the Magisterium felt foreign to him. Even the way he tried to said it didn’t roll out of his tongue. But before he could continue on his dwindling thoughts, Lily began to continue.

“The compass was said to be a key to all the answer if the user asked the right question. Thirty-six symbols with different interpretations and uses needed to be combined for the alethiometer to work. The alethiometer will tell the user of truth on the answer that they seek. Beware that said answer will not always be what the users want but what they need,”

The both of them looked towards one another. They had the same expression on their face. Utter and complete confusion. What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“Maybe we should test it first. See if the scripture remains true,” Coreolanus interjected.

“He’s right. We have to test it so we can see if we are not being lied too,” Sasuke agreed.

Lily, however, hesitated. In truth, Eve had told her to wait on her lesson about the alethiometer. The discussion of the compass would be needing a guide because there were thousands of interpretations in the hidden truths. A misstep of interpretations could cause major damage to the threads of fate. And she didn’t want to cross the boundary where she cannot go back.

“Wait, Sasuke. I don’t think we should do it without supervision,”

“When’s the last time you care about supervision? You’re literally holding a rare artefact that people were destroying. Aren’t you a little bit curious about what it’s going to tell you?”

Lily seemed to be contemplating about it a lot. She looked towards said compass and swore that it was waving at her, whispering her to try and use it. She was so curious about what it would tell her but at the same time scared of what she is going to find. But she surrendered towards her curiosity and only glared at Sasuke.

“Sasuke, you fool. You’ll be the death of me,”

He smirked in return and grabbed the alethiometer, handing it to her. Lily paused before she could turn the needles around. She turned to Sasuke with a blank look on her face.

“I don’t know what to ask of it,”

“What was that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know if you have a bloody ear or not but a question didn’t pop off into my mind,”

“Well, what do you want me to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Think with that brain of yours to give me a question, reminiscence a peculiar day to give me a question or just give me a bloody question!”

“Alright, women! No need to shout about it,”

Lily huffed and went back to her book. She was waiting on Sasuke to think about what he wanted to ask. She glanced at the alethiometer and the book. She smiled bitterly at the last piece of her father. See unlike Eve, Lily was never close to her parents at all. Her mother had left to North after she was born and her father didn’t even glance at her. However, she didn’t dwell on it because she had a sister that took care of her since she was a baby. Eve had doted her and didn’t even ask to be told twice. She was not perfect, not by a long shot but at least she was there for her. That was enough.

“My favourite day,” Sasuke mumbled.

“What?”

“What’s my favourite day?”

“Are you seriously asking that?” she snickered.

“Just do as I told,” he sneered.

Lily frowned. Is Sasuke going to have a bitch fit right now? She thought to herself. Yet, she had done as he asked and began to turn the needles. She looked at the book so that it could guide her and went back to the alethiometer. She turned the longest needle to the sun that indicating day, the middle to the hourglass, and the shortest one to the thunderbolt that reflects his method.

The needles turned wildly and the gold dust that was spinning inside the alethiometer started to disperse, surrounding the both of them in its’ light. Sasuke’s eyes twinkled in amazement because of seeing something out of the ordinary. He could say that since he had enough reference that Shinobi didn’t get caught in amazement. With what he had experienced, he must say that nothing fazed him anymore. But what was happening in front of him, it was beyond beauty.

“What is this?” he asked while touching one of the golden strings.

“It’s dust, kid. It’s an essential of one being. That was what connects me to Lily, what connects you to your ability, what makes you unique,” Coreolanus answered since Lily was too focused on the compass.

“I don’t understand. I thought that we need Chakra to use our ability,”

“Try using one of the techniques that you know of,”

Sasuke put out his palm and tried to summon a little fire in his hand. He had done this training thousand of times when he was still with that bastard. He was willing to calm himself down from the thought of him and tried to build up chakra in his palm. Instead of the usual feeling he got in his gut for messing with Chakra, he saw the dust dispersed more throughout his room and some of them gathered in his arm. The light show was put to a stop when said dust became fire. Sasuke looked towards Coreolanus for an answer.

“Dust and Chakra are one of the same thing, kid. One cannot live without the other,”

He observed the flame in his hand and the new information to process in his head. He always thought that the sisters were mere villagers but by the looks of it, they hide things more than he knew of. The dust suddenly disappeared but the fire was still lit on his hand. He looked towards Lily and found out that she had closed the alethiometer. He put out the fire and looked at Lily for an answer.

“Well, what does it say?” he was getting impatient since Lily seemed to contemplate whether she should tell him or not. But alas, she decided that she will tell him.

“You haven’t had one, yet,”

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Eve was trying on a few outfits that fit her best for the dinner party. Oxford had hosted a dinner party to welcome the Magisterium. The board was notified a few days ahead that an inspection was going to be held thoroughly. It put everyone on edge since the last time the Magisterium did this a lot of disapproved research and study was burned down or taken away. Hence, the tense atmosphere inside the classes she attended.

But for Eve, it was a time for her to shine. She had been wanting this opportunity for years. She knew that the only way to gain access to the Magisterium was to have someone recommending you. She was trying to find ways towards it yet always proven wrong. She asked her father but he merely scoffed and told her to focus on her study. She tried again by asking the Master but it seemed that he was not familiar with any Magisterium members.

“Are you sure that you don’t know anyone related to the Magisterium?” Eve asked the Master once again unsure of his last answer.

The Master only laughed.

“I am sure, Eve. I am not exactly very noticeable in the eyes of Magisterium,” he began packing his books and wipe the board for the lesson had concluded that day.

Eve scoffed in disbelief of his words. There was no way he wasn’t noticed by the Magisterium for he was the most brilliant professor that had come to teach her or so she thought. His understanding of modern theology and physics was admirable whilst his skills of combat and self-defence were something to be feared for.

“That’s such a lie to be told, Master. With your glittering eyes when we discuss of Dust or even the natures of dӕmon didn’t catch the eyes of the board thus the world is filled with blind men,” she sneered.

The Master only smirked and his blue eyes filled with mirth. The words that she had uttered was always filled with complicated words that one needed to crack. In other words, Eve was insulting the board men who were filled with misogynistic thoughts and stereotypes. But on the other hand, she was praising him for his thoughts.

“Well, they can’t help it, Eve. Men will always be afraid of different thoughts on a matter. One cannot simply open up their thoughts especially to a foreigner like me,” he said.

“But you don’t look like one to me, Sir. With your eyes –“

They were interrupted by a knock on the classroom before Eve could finish her sentences. Malcolm stood on the doorway, a tense expression on his face. Eve put on a neutral expression from seeing her father. It was safe to say that she was still angry at him. They had a row last night regarding her sister. He had forbidden them to see their mother and Eve had asked him why. He wouldn’t answer her and instead told her to only focus on her studies and her sister. Least to say, she was still pissed off and wasn’t willing to see his face.

“Master, I require your assistance for the presentation,”

The master only sighed and looked towards the father-daughter. Malcolm put on a neutral face so that he couldn’t figure out what he felt but it wasn’t the same case as Eve. She was unwilling to see Malcolm’s face and went as petty as talking to his dӕmon rather than facing him. Pandorica was willing to greet the girl rather than pretending of not seeing her. The only normal thing that Eve could have before the parents’ travel to the North.

“Alright. Eve, I expect you to be at dinner to make a good impression on the Magisterium inspector. Don’t take any detour,”

The Master pat her head and walked towards Malcolm. The Master’s dӕmon, Hermetheus, perched on her shoulder leaving a few words when they were out of the door.

“Don’t take your father’s behaviour in the wrong way, Evangeline. He still loves you,”

“Yeah right. He had a funny way of showing it last night,” Eve scoffed.

Hermetheus sighed and said to herself that Eve was as stubborn as her father. Yet, she knew that it wouldn’t help in this matter.

“Have you forgotten what the Master had told you, Eve? A dӕmon’s behaviour showed their counterparts deepest desires. Let that sink in and ask yourself the logical question regarding your father,”

Eve, however, was already as stubborn as a mule. She let herself believe that the man that had returned from the North was a former shell of her father. Her old one that was filled with laughter and mischief had vanished. It seemed that his body was here and yet his heart belonged elsewhere. Hermetheus noticing Eve’s stubborn stance just sighed and went to the hummingbird that was perching on the nearby window.

She flew towards Betelgeuse and the other dӕmon’s stance resembled Eve. Albeit it wasn’t as rough as her, Betelgeuse was in a more reluctant position. He didn’t want to believe that Malcolm had changed since his dӕmon, Pandorica hadn’t changed at all. But all those rough arguments and drinking nights that happened in the house rather frequently would tell him otherwise.

“Look after her would you,” Hermetheus said.

“Wouldn’t even dream of leaving her. You should go, the Master is waiting for you,”

With that Hermetheus flew away, leaving Betelgeuse with his half alone in the classroom. He noted the tears of frustration that was gathering on her eyes and he couldn’t blame her. The situation that they’re in was stressful for Eve. Along with her studies she had to keep up, she needed to take care of Lily since she was only a toddler. Her father was unwilling to look at his children in the eyes for an unknown reason and spent himself cooped up in the study. Betelgeuse flew to her side and looked her in the eye.

“Let’s take a stroll around the castle, shall we Eve? I think both of us needed some refreshing air,”

Even though all Eve wanted was to go home and care for her sibling, she thought that spending the time on her sound tempting. She wanted to be selfish for a time and she finally did. She offered Betelgeuse a small smile and took on his offer for a stroll around the castle.

She noted that the month of summer was upon them. She could feel the warm breeze of summer wind blowing on her face. Betelgeuse seemed to be in a better mood also of how he flew around the hall. She noted how beautiful the castle was with the setting sun showing on the background. Not a single person walked on the hall and Eve appreciated the absence of it. However, her musing was put to a stop when she bumped into something hard.

She rubbed her nose and glared at said person that she bumped. She was about to scold her when she was meet with brilliant blue eyes and golden hair. She was beautiful and aesthetically pleasing to look at. Her flowing white gown held an elegant tone that Eve admired.

“I’m sorry that I bumped into you, Miss,”

“That’s quite alright,” the woman smiled curtly.

The beautiful woman was about to walk away when Eve noticed that she was wearing a badge of the Magisterium. The golden badge that complimented her attire and being shone brightly in Eve’s eyes.

“Excuse me, Miss. I don’t want to sound rude but are you a member of the Magisterium?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. My name is Eliandil Sawyer and you are?”

“Evangeline Moreau, Miss Sawyer. It’s a pleasure to meet you,”

“Say do you know a man named Malcolm Moreau?” Eliandil eyes glint with curiosity.

“He’s my father. You’re a friend of him?”

“Well, I can’t say we’re friends but we go way back. Your father never told you about me?”

At the mention of her father, Eve was reminded of the current situation. She gritted her teeth in trying to calm her rage but Eliandil could see straight through her.

“Ah, so the matter is worse than it seemed to be. How about we go for some tea? I think it will calm your nerves a bit,”

Eve took the stranger offer without another thought.

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	12. [Alethiometer]

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The shop was empty of costumers since it was nearing its’ closing time. Eve was wiping down glasses and cutleries that was recently washed by Lily. The latter was now upstairs tinkering away with the leather book and the alethiometer that went hand in hand. The absence of Sasuke and Naruto made her more focused on her tinkering on the compass. She thought that she might help them by telling them strategies that could help soon.

She was wondering what the other two boys were up to. Kakashi had taken Sasuke with him to trained and left Naruto with another teacher. She didn’t understand his method since Kakashi was a teacher to both of them. Yet, she didn’t question him knowing that she had no clue how the ninja world works. She had the basic down of course but she wouldn’t judge someone for the method on their madness. Besides, it would feel as if a pot calling a kettle black.

Her musing, however, was interrupted by the sound of the front doorbell ringing. She wondered who in their right mind would wander the street of Konoha at this late hour of the night. The Hokage had issued a curfew for the citizen. The reason was only known by the Shinobi and a few chosen relatives. An attack had occurred on the Chūnin Exam.

She remembered that day where she and Lily had to close down the shop early to visit Sasuke. It was a long and strenuous day for both of them. Seeing him washed up by pain when they couldn’t do anything. It was worrisome but thus the reality of being a Shinobi. You could’ve gotten hurt anytime.

“I thought you might want to hear what happened to him,” a voice sounded from behind her.

“As his legal guardian, of course, I would like too,”

She turned her back and saw him. His gravity-defying hair was longer than usual, a sign that she hadn’t seen him for quite a long time. The usual mask was set in place and she didn’t forget the headband that covered one of his eyes. The first time she met him, she couldn’t distinguish whether he was smiling or frowning. Yet, she could always discern it from his eyes. Besides, the eyes were the window to the soul.

He was now supporting a heavy eye bag underneath, probably, from the paramount stress he had managed to gather. Even if he wasn’t training both of his students for the upcoming match, he was already overwhelmed with Sasuke.

“Is he really that stubborn?” she asked him while pouring him a cup of tea.

“As stubborn as an old mule. But, it’s nothing that I can’t handle,” he offered her a tired smile but she wasn’t convinced.

“We are talking about the same kid, right? One that had heavy issues regarding opening up to new things and family matters,”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” he muttered.

He went to sip on the tea when Eve wasn’t looking. Kakashi looked towards the empty glass and frowned. Eve was right. He was downed with stress because of Sasuke’s constant whining and argumentative nature. Practising for the final round of the Chūnin exam was a necessary one especially with his opponent. The moment Sasuke’s name had been withdrawn to compete with the deadliest genin from the sand, the household was filled with constant worry and panic. Not to mention, Sasuke was still gravely injured from the second exam.

His glass was taken away to be replaced by a new one. The glass that was once empty was soon filled with a familiar liquid that was shared occasionally between Kakashi and her. A knowing look passed her eyes and a smirk was blossoming on her full lips.

“Drink up. You’ll be needing your sanity back when you get back to training him,”

Eve poured herself a cup knowing that she couldn’t let a drink such as this nice scotch go to waste. It was a reminder of her home yet like the liquid that ran down her throat it left a bitter sensation that she couldn’t describe whether it was homesickness or heartache. She scrunched her eyebrows as the liquid warmed her throat yet left a bitter taste on her mouth. Yet, Kakashi didn’t even show an ounce of difference showing his regular stop on different booze each night.

“I swear Sasuke did this on purpose. Of course, it makes sense. He was called a child prodigy for a reason. Yet, it just frustrates me to no end,” the booze had decided to kick in since Kakashi began telling her his feelings from the bottom of his heart.

“I reckon it was like seeing oneself in a mirror,”

“Right you are,”

They shared a few laughs here and there before. After their usual D rank mission, his team would go to her shop and order something to eat. The kids would soon go upstairs saying that they wanted to accompany Lily, leaving Kakashi alone. But as soon as he got up, Eve was greeting him with a smile and asked him what his team had been doing.

At first, he was unwilling to stay but somehow his polite gesture turned into a comfortable one after sipping the tea that she had offered. It became a habit of his to share a few stories with her and vice versa. He would tell her the odd but daily occurrence that happened to him and in return, she would tell him the time before she moved here. The conversation would go on and on until the both of them didn’t realize that it wasn’t just about polite conversation anymore.

Oddly, Kakashi didn’t mind that.

Now, without his team, Kakashi would go to the store alone to just see the owner. Words would not be needed since Eve knew exactly what he felt. She would either pour a glass of chamomile tea or brandy. Either way, he would drink it and felt warm inside. They would drink until one of them was drunk enough –in that case, it was usually Eve since she couldn’t handle her drink –and he would leave.

Kakashi would leave a note and produced a shadow clone to carry her upstairs.

Tonight was probably one of those nights where he would carry him again for she had down her second glass of brandy.

“So tell me what exactly your plan on training Sasuke?”

“Well, I can’t really tell you since it was supposed to be a surprise for later,”

“At least tell me something since you restricted me from visiting my ward and could only send him food or clothes for a month,”

“And what would you give me in return?” he teased.

“The best thing that you would taste and make you crave for it until the end of time,”

“Oh really,”

“And when it touched the tip of your tongue it would make you moan and beg for more,”

“And that would be?”

She smirked and told him to close his eyes –or in his case his only uncovered eye. To entertain her, Kakashi did as she pleased and waited. A heavy thumping was heard in front of him, something had hit the counter.

“You can open your eyes now,” Eve told him.

Kakashi was greeted with a jar of cookies. The pink colour of the said cookie was different than the cookies that she usually baked and sold. He presumed that the cookie was quite rare since the lid was wrapped tightly and was sealed by a candle. He was surprised but disappointed at the same time. To be honest, he expected something more. But knowing her, it was probably more than just a jar of cookie.

“Just that?”

“Oh no. This is NOT just a jar of cookie. This extremely rare batch was made during a pink full moon and have extraordinary abilities to rejuvenate and calm you if you nibble it just a little bit. I will give you two cookies if you give me some information about BOTH of my wards,” Eve offered.

Kakashi seemed to contemplate it for a bit. He decided to delay his answer for a bit for dramatic effect and Eve grew irritated because of it. He would never admit it but the scrunched up nose and furrowed eyebrows of her just make her a bit adorable.

“Alright. We have a deal then,”

Eve decided to pack the cookies using a decorated paperback and even took the time to make him a note on how he should take the cookie. He didn’t know why she bothered to do it since it was just a cookie with an unusual colour to it. But he didn’t voice his thought at all. He, however, decided to fulfil his end of the bargain.

“I decided to give Sasuke a training of a technique that I made before,”

Eve raised an eyebrow in question.

“You made it before? What does it do?"

“Let’s just say when you see it your eyes won’t be the only thing that is electric in the arena,”

Eve gave a light smile at him and he returned it. But a thought crossed her mind and wiped the smile out of her lips. She cleared her throat and made Kakashi snapped out of it. She began writing on the paper again and downed another glass. To ease the tension, Eve poured him another drink and he downed it in one go. He glanced towards her in case she decided to take a peek at his face but she was too engrossed on writing on the paper that he felt that it was safe to open his mask. The brandy burned his throat yet warmed his beings. It also made him felt at ease after the unspoken words that were shared between the two of them. He sighed and tried to strike up a conversation. Kakashi asked how was the shop that day.

A relieved expression was noticed on Eve’s face on how her eyebrows were in a relaxed position. She conversed easily with him on how the tourist that had visited Konoha for the tournament had flooded the shop. She even had a booked and waiting lists separately for the customers. Not to mention, that the shop was a sanctuary for both boys that had made it to the finals. The customers who were trying to get a glimpse of Sasuke or Naruto –mostly Sasuke though –would try to delay their departure from the store.

Lily tried to politely tell the customer to shove off by saying that both of them were busy or not in the vicinity. But if the customers insisted to see them, Eve had to interrupt and told them to take their ass to another store saying that she won’t be serving someone who intruded on someone’s privacy. Some would apologize and leave yet others only muttered saying horrible things. Eve cursed them, of course, because that was the only way that they would run sprinting out of the shop.

Kakashi laughed, particularly at that story. It was always fun to hear how her days went by. Normalcy wasn’t something that ninja usually have and he was grateful that at least his students get a break from the hectic life of a ninja.

“How about Naruto though? What are your plans with him?”

The question seemed to strike a nerve inside him with the way he held on tightly suddenly around his glass. He poured himself another glass and shot it down. Eve waited patiently for him to answer even though she didn’t know what triggered him that way. She sipped the drink on her hand while Kakashi was already on his third pour.

He really could hold his drink, she thought. Considering that it was currently the strongest booze in the shop. Eve could even get a little bit tipsy even if she drank it on the rock. Yet, the man in front of her had downed it with ease. She hypothesised that Kakashi had numerous occasion for drinking before they even met.

“I get him to train with someone else,”

Eve’s first instinct was to scold the hell out of him bearing in mind that he was Naruto’s teacher. But, his gloomy eyes and slouched posture dissuade her from doing so.

“I know that I’m his teacher and I have the responsibility to teach him something for him to survive. I swear that I’m not playing favourites, Eve. I adore both of them albeit their annoying tendency to bicker with one another. Yet, every time I look at him all the rage and terror springs forward without my control and I don’t know what triggers it. It’s just –hard. It’s hard for me to even look at him because I still see the shadow of a man that I cannot save,”

Kakashi’s confession felt like a sin to himself. He didn’t know how long these feelings and thoughts had festered in his mind. But from the booze itself, he could tell that it stemmed even before he met Naruto.

“Who is this man then?” Eve asked.

He looked at her finally yet fear of what he would see. Kakashi had a reputation even if it’s not a pretty one. The words won’t be necessary since one look was already enough to tell. Some Jounins would give him pitiful glance while others would glare out of hatred. Even his friends who he deemed to be a close one treated him carefully like a put out fire. Wherewith one swoop of the wind or a dash of chakra would make the amber turned into a great fire, seeking to destroy everything in its’ way.

But no.

Her eyes told him otherwise. Kakashi could see from the dim lighting of the shop that her blue eyes were filled with curiosity. He wondered why yet sighing in relief that at least she wouldn’t look at him as his friends. To him, Eve was like a breath of fresh air. When he expected the same polluted air of whispers from the civilians and gossips from his comrade, he was greeted by the new smell of fresh linen and lavender. The smell that somehow clung on Eve.

He raised his eyebrow in question, asking her to explain further on her question.

“I mean he must be important to you, right? Considering it affected you on how you perceive something from the smallest of details to the big pictures of things,”

“I can’t really tell you who he is but I can tell you what he has done,”

He tried to recollect things from his mind of said man. It was a long time ago since the last time he had spoken of his first teacher. Minato Namikaze was a herald of morality, Kakashi thought. That man had thought him a lot of good things in his life since his father passed away. Yet, since his passing Kakashi tried to forget him for the memories only hurt him more than they should.

“He was the man that hold the hearts of thousands of people that respected, adored, and feared him,”

That night, Kakashi poured everything about Minato Namikaze to the clueless shop owner until the said stars in the sky that night had their eyes opened on how they witnessed the friend killer poured his heart contents. And the warden of two fearless genins learned that the words that had been uttered in the street about Kakashi were nothing but a fruitless thought about a man that was still wounded.

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Eve woke up with a start and Betelgeuse even yelped from his sleep near her head. She had heard a scream not far from her bedroom. It must have awoken the whole house up since she could hear the pitter-patter of someone’s feet meeting the floor wood board. The sound of the scream had gotten worse and coarser with the added of grunting and shouting of Naruto. She opened the door abruptly and looked towards the hall. Betelgeuse didn’t hesitate to fly and nurture the scared boy that Naruto was trying to calm. Because he knew, she would deal with a lot of things and not just Sasuke.

There stood Lily with her worrying glance towards the door that held the commotion. She looked like she wanted to help but didn’t know exactly what she must do. Eve approached her younger sister carefully and put an assured hand on her shoulder. Lily was scared out of her pants when she heard the screaming. Sasuke’s room was across the hall so she was the first one who heard it and flung his door opened. She couldn’t get the image of Sasuke screaming with his eyes wide opened yet stare into oblivion out of her sight.

Her mind was screaming at her to go in there and help him but her feet won’t move. Just like last time when she wanted to help Naruto. She went into this trance of hesitance because of fear. Her dӕmon, Coreolanus, whispered calming words near her ear where he transformed himself into a chipmunk so that he could perch on her shoulder.

“Breathe, Lily. I know you’re scared but I need you to breathe,” Coreolanus whispered to her.

However, his voice was mere background noise. True horror had laid in front of her and she didn’t know what to do. The flutter of wings was heard near her ear. Betelgeuse had entered Sasuke’s room and tried to calm him down. Betelgeuse perched himself on the nightstand and whispered Sasuke comforting words while Naruto tried to hold him down. Sasuke who had recently been discharged from the hospital had taken refuge for a while on the Moreau’s household.

He didn’t know them very well but Eve was the only one who was willing to be a sanctuary for him. Sasuke didn’t protest much but he tried not to think about it. His sight was focused on getting revenge for his family. By only killing the bastard, he could rest in peace. His resolve to kill him was the sole reason that he trained until he couldn’t stand. In the state that he was in, he didn’t have much time to think about what happen thus the nightmare didn’t show up.

Yet, his doings made him sick and the healers said that he needed to rest for a while so that his body could heal. The first few days were fine but his dreams –if he could call it as such –was a time bomb. Sasuke’s harmless dreams turned into a violent circus that was filled with bloodstained kunai and the smell of burning flesh. Too realistic to be called a dream.

“Damn it! Stop hurting yourself, dumbass!” Naruto tried to stop Sasuke from scratching his eyes out. Yet, Sasuke yelled defiantly at him and continued to pry himself off of Naruto.

Lily was on the verge of tearing up out of fear and worry when she felt a pair of hand covered her eyes and drag her away. She could feel a soft fabric that was placed on her head and the hands that guide her away from Sasuke’s room to the kitchen. She was picked up by a pair of sturdy yet delicate hand and sat her on the counter. She heard the calming lullaby from Eve’s mouth that tried to hush down her erratic breathing.

“You’re alright, Lils’. Calm down okay,”

She tried to nod and when Eve thought that Lily was stable enough she dashed a cupboard that was filled with a various potion that she made. A couple of days ago she had brewed a batch of calming draughts and a sleeping one in case she couldn’t sleep. However, tonight would be proven that she wasn’t the only one that needed these potions. After grabbing the necessary potions, she ran towards Sasuke’s room. Naruto tried his best in putting Sasuke down but it seemed that the latter was not willing to go down without a fight.

“Naruto, I need you to hold on tight to him okay?”

Eve got to work by conjuring a rope around his wrists and ankles. Naruto who deemed that it was safe seeing that Sasuke wouldn’t able to hurt himself finally stepped back and let Eve did her work. Eve cradled Sasuke’s head and whispered a few prayers towards the Dust to help her regarding Sasuke’s condition. She saw the fleeting golden powder surround them building a protective dome.

“Naruto, go check up on Lily. I have everything under control here,”

Naruto just nodded and without further ado went on his way to the kitchen. Eve went back to the more pressing matter at hand. Sasuke’s tantrum had died down but his breathing was still irregular and his eyes were still strained upwards unblinking. His frantic gasps and darting eyes were the stuff of nightmare. But she sympathized with him since she knew how it felt like getting night terrors.

So, she hugged Sasuke and cradle his head on her chest. She put the potions on his nightstand since she didn’t want to use it immediately. He was only eight years old and if he took the potions now there would be some side effect such as addiction. She rubbed his back and tried to fuse the Dust that was in her to his while soothing the unstable thoughts. Eve moved him so that he could sit on her lap, placing him in a comfortable space.

“Listen to my heartbeat Sasuke. It would help,” Eve whispered on his ears.

Sasuke tried to pinpoint her heartbeat beyond the ones he had and his erratic breathing. She undid the bonds on his wrists and as soon as she did it, he clutched on her robes hard. He was trying to grasp anything that would make him return to his stable self. The soft satin fabric brushed against his hands and he tried to remember the way it felt against his hand. Yet, it wasn’t enough.

He tried again by finding her heartbeat, anything that would remember him that he was among the living and not the dead. Then there it was. a soft thumping of a heart beating against its ribcage. It was soft and if he didn’t concentrate the sound would lose itself against the overwhelming currents of others. So, he willingly closed his eyes and tried to find the same beat again even if he was afraid of the dark.

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

Sasuke tried to calm his breathing by following the beat of Eve’s heart. It was a slow process but a necessary one if he was willing to calm himself down. It took him a while, Eve noticed. Her arms were cramping from the way she cradled his head and her back was slouched considering that she had to be in the same position for at least half an hour. The boy in her arms had calmed down and possibly sleeping. The light snore indicated it.

She tried her best to untie the bond on his legs using her hand since she was exhausted from trying to meddle with his dust. Unless she wanted to pass out from exhaustion, Eve had to refrain herself from using any more of her powers. Betelgeuse tried the best he can by pecking the ropes and she thanked him for it. After a while, they managed to free Sasuke’s legs and tucked him to bed. The marks on his wrist and ankles were red from scratching but it was nothing that he couldn’t handle. He would put a salve on the damage later in the morning.

Eve tried to take a breather by sitting herself and thought of nothing. Yet, she was interrupted by the bed rustling and saw Sasuke trying to sit next to her. It was quiet for a moment. Eve had no idea what he was going to say. Sasuke could conceal his thoughts from her and Eve was not accustomed to that. But if she wanted to get Sasuke to talk, she needed to let him go on his own pace.

“I don’t need all of your sympathy for doing this,” he muttered.

It was more of a whisper since she couldn’t hear him quite well. Even the breeze outside from the open window was heard more than his voice.

“What makes you say that?” she questioned.

Sasuke just clenched his jaw and looked towards Eve with a sullen look.

“Are you kidding me? You! You are the only person who wholeheartedly becomes my ward without a second thought! You who decided it was a good idea to take care of someone with so many problems like me! You who constantly a reminder for me of that _bastard!_ And you’re asking me that? What is wrong with you? If I were you I would stay away and yet you didn’t! Why? I don’t understand,”

The longer he ranted the more his voice became scratchy and nasally. He was full-on blasting his vocal cord on Eve yet she didn’t even flinch. She stared ahead with an even look and a calm face. Sasuke didn’t understand that. The tears that threatened to spill was gathering on his eyes. He was feeling frustrated and confused by the reaction he got from most people.

The words that the Uchiha clan was slaughtered had gotten out of hand and went out in public as soon as Sasuke was discharged. He didn’t have the time to adjust to the new situation and the whispers on the street didn’t help. Everywhere he went, he was greeted by the staring eyes or words that he could hear.

_Is that the last of the Uchiha?_

_Bah! I knew this day would come in the end._

_I hope someone who been taking care of him won’t be driven to insanity._

The stares were awful but the words were even harsher. The civilians probably didn’t mean what they say but it got him thinking. They embedded thoughts that questioned Eve’s motives and he knew that he shouldn’t be doing that. He didn’t want to ruin a single thought about her since she was the last pure memory of his brother. But because of that, every time Sasuke looked at her a familiar yet hated face flashed before his eyes.

“If you think that I am doing this for the sake of him don’t fool yourself. I hate him just as much as you do. He took something from me the way that he had taken something from you. And no! You are not the only one with problems. It may have slipped your mind but take a look around. We are not exactly the most stable family in the house. Naruto had issues that may not be the same as yours but it is a problem nonetheless. Lily had a problem too and yet she kept it to herself. Yet, we try. Trying is the best that we can do right now by holding on tightly to those who were willing to help us,”

The words tried to settle in Sasuke’s thought but he needed some time to process all of it. Eve knew that she couldn’t get all of her points across since Sasuke was only eight yet she knew he would come around. But, before he came around she would try to guide him to the best of her ability. The once gathering tears started to slip drop by drop and he let it fall. His heart and brain couldn’t handle the waves of emotion that had been simmering like a Gumbo.

The resentment. Feeling of being helpless. But most of all, his longing for his family were there.

“Then how can I? How can I get over this?” He sniffed and tried to wipe the snot that was running down his nose.

“I am not sure. I’ve never been where you are. However, I know that you are going to sleep and wake up, eat your breakfast, train, bathe, and you will do it all over again. By the time you wake up, the hurt will lessen and it will continue to do so until you will only feel a twinge here and there from time to time,”

Betelgeuse flew out of the room and grab a box of tissue for Eve. She cleaned him from his tears and snot while tucking him to bed. She made sure that Sasuke at least got a few drops of the sleeping potion and closed the window. Yet, she noticed the not so subtle grey hair that was perching not far from the tree that settled across the window watching them like a hawk. She closed the window and she knew that her dӕmon had noticed it as well.

_What shall we do, Eve?_ Betelgeuse voiced his concern through their telepathic channel, fearing that the strange man would listen in on them.

_I don’t know, Bett. _She voiced.

_Should I guard him here then? In case the intruder gets in,_ he suggested.

_No, I would be more worried since we will be more vulnerable if we aren’t together. Stay with me here until I could sense the presence away from here._

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	13. [Alethiometer]

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Eve was led into the town’s favourite place to hang out. A hand on her shoulder and the towering presence of Eliandil had accompanied her throughout her journey towards said place. Passing pedestrians would look at the two of them since the town didn’t have many tourists. Eliandil tried to make light conversation with her to ease her up while her dӕmon –a brilliant orange fox tried to do the same with her own. The fox didn’t say much but he did introduce his name, Callidius.

Eliandil would ask Eve what she was currently doing and what her routine was. She answered it to the best of her ability but the latter was more interested about the peculiar women who came from the Magisterium. The position to be in the Magisterium required high skills and perception, she heard from the usual chatter of the professors. Thus, the people who run it always gave structured training to those who wish to work inside the Magisterium. Not to mention they would have screened towards women more. And for that, there were not many people of her gender who worked for them.

They arrived at an open café that was aesthetically pleasing to look at. It had no roofs but they did not need to worry about the rain since the weather would be nice for three months. The opened air and the walls that were covered with vines that crept around it. Not many customers had filled within the vicinity thus easing them into taking a seat.

She had never gone out to venture the town since she was preoccupied with her studies in the College. However, she did manage to recognize some of the sellers on the market. They would greet her with a smile and even some would ask her how her sister, Lily. She replied shortly since Eliandil would push her forward so that they could arrive at her destination sooner.

Now that they have, Eve admired the interior and how the sunlight poured from between the leaves. She, however, was enchanted by the stained glasses that surrounded the café. The diffracted light that passed through it became dancing lights that washed upon her being. She tried to raise her hand to catch the light since the beauty of simplicity always caught her eyes more than anything.

“So tell me, my dear, what exactly did Mr Malcolm had been teaching you?”

Eliandil sipped on her tea, waiting for Eve’s response.

“Not much. He’s been cooped up on his research ever since he came back from the North,” Eve scoffed.

Eliandil gasped scandalized by the idea that Malcolm had abandoned his daughter.

“Not only did he abandon me but he also abandoned his favourite daughter. Pity,”

Eliandil lit up a cigarette and puffed it after dragging a long one. Betelgeuse heaved since he couldn’t stand smoke and fled away to perch on Eve’s shoulder. Eve sipped on the tea that was placed in front of her and cringed at the heat of said drink. She forgot that it was boiling and tried to ease her burnt tongue with mint cream puffs.

“What’s your position in the Magisterium, Ms Sawyer?”

“I work in the department of investigation. The high priest told me to come here on behalf of the Magisterium,”

Eve nodded outside while she squealed like a fangirl inside. For someone who had a general knowledge of the Magisterium from words and books, meeting Eliandil felt like a dream to her. However, the latter could only cock her head in faux surprise.

“How do you know I work for the Magisterium?”

“The intricate design of the pin on your left shoulder is not only for accessories. It is very hard to get a pin that only Magisterium officer could get. Not only a mediocre Magisterium officer but also the one who the high priest chose to trust. I saw how the villagers react to you and I can’t believe I met someone from the department of investigation. I heard it’s very hard to get in –“

She rambled and Eliandil could only stare at her in shock. I mean it is common knowledge for a few officers inside the Magisterium to get the pin itself. But for her to know the secret of why was in itself curious since not that many people knew the Magisterium. Only selected scholars had those kinds of information from the history books that they had gathered. _Interesting, _Eliandil thought.

“So how did you exactly now my father?” Eve asked her after she swallowed the puffs.

“Oh, darling. We go way back since the first time he stepped his foot in the North,”

“What did you do with him?” Eve leaned forward in excitement.

This is the first time she had seen someone from her father’s line of work. Malcolm had kept guard on his work quite tight so that Eve couldn’t sniff around. Of course, it proved to be quite futile since Eve would ask left and right to other professors. However, like father like daughter, Malcolm was always one step away from her and managed to block her way by containing all of his findings in the North or shut the professors up. But here was her chance, Eliandil provided a timely occurrence for Eve to dig up her father’s findings.

“All kinds of things mainly his findings in the North,”

“What things?”

Eliandil paused before she could continue her rambling about said man. She had no idea what happened after Malcolm packed up from the headquarters near a town called Svalbard. All she had woken up to was a commotion around the base of how their precious professor had left in the middle of the night. She didn’t want to cross boundaries that she cannot go back to. But, Eve had intrigued her for her mere presence.

“Why do you want to know?” Eliandil cocked her eyebrows.

“I have been trying to get a glimpse of his findings in the North. It held a rather precious spot in his heart and I grow too curious of it,”

“Haven’t you heard? Curiosity killed the cat. What makes you think that I will give you what you want?”

A trap.

Eve knew one since the Master always told her to give the benefit of the doubt about proposals such as this one. There was something that Eliandil wanted but she needed to be careful of what she had to offer. The pros of having help from the higher-ups such as Eliandil Sawyer would gain trust from the Magisterium. Yet, the cons of this were her losing trust from either Malcolm or the Master.

While Eve was contemplating the options that had laid itself in front of her, Eliandil was scrutinizing the latter. She dragged another puff of cigarettes and cocked her head in questions. Eve had reminded her when she was still young. Full of vigour and ambitions of being the best inside the walls of the Magisterium. Her eyes that held the wanting of being placed where she wouldn't be judged as a woman was seen through Eve’s eyes and it reminded her of herself.

Too much in fact.

“How about this? You give me an insight into Malcolm’s findings from the North and I’ll tell you everything you want,” Eliandil offered.

The offer was a risky move on Eve's part since she didn’t know anything about Eliandil but the offer had laid itself on her. A golden ticket towards the Magisterium. If she could get into the radar of the Magisterium it would be through Eliandil. Yet, was it worth it to spy on her father so that she could get in the good eyes of the woman across her.

“Eve, I don’t think this is a good idea?” Betelgeuse voiced his thought.

“It’s not like we have many choices about this, right? Besides the opportunity presents itself upon us and I don’t think we should abandon it,”

“I don’t know, Eve. She seemed kind of sketch if you asked me,”

“Come on, give her a chance, Bett. Besides, we didn’t have to lose anything and what could she possibly do with the information,” she whispered the last part towards Betelgeuse so that Eliandil couldn’t hear her.

“I’ll give you an insight into Malcolm’s findings only if you will train me and recommend me for an apprenticeship in the Magisterium,”

The reaction from Eliandil was not something Eve was expecting. The former women laughed out loud that echoed inside the café. She scooted closer and studied the young girl in front of her. The bargain was tempting since Eliandil’s job was to get some valuable information regarding said man. Her job was getting easier by the minute. She could give a full extensive report on Malcolm’s findings while keeping an eye on his daughter.

Eliandil extended her hand so that Eve could shake it for terms of the agreement. The latter hesitated for a few seconds before reaching Eliandli’s arm and shook it. Eve’s eyes that were set on her goal to work in the Magisterium can be seen from where she was now.

A few stones left to be stepped.

₼

The two sisters had taken a seat near the ring to watch the match that Sasuke and Naruto had participated in. Eve had worn a robe made out of chiffon fabric that changed its’ colour the further it got to the bottom. The puffy sleeves and the bellowing bottom of the dress made her stand out from the rest of the villagers and tourists. Her curly short hair was pinned down so that it didn’t obstruct her view. The purple dress that she had worn contrasted differently from her sister who decided to wear simple things.

Lily had chosen to be more practical by wearing a white t-shirt paired with denim overall. The pocket in front held the alethiometer and Coreolanus who had taken form as a hedgehog. He watched the surroundings and climbed out of said pocket towards the stand. Betelgeuse accompanied him by flying not too far away from him.

“Woah, look at this humongous place!” Coreolanus said.

“Don’t be stupid. It looks this big because of how small you are,” Betelgeuse snickered.

“And you’re not? You are even smaller than I am, you honey-sucking vermin!”

“At least I’m not going to be called a rodent, right?”

Coreolanus was seething with anger at the reply yet the latter only smirked in satisfaction. It was so easy to rally him up and Betelgeuse took pleasure in that. He, however, found himself in deep trouble when he felt a cold aura from behind him. He looked behind and the both of them shivered in fear looking at Eve who was smiling yet the aura would tell you otherwise.

“Get your asses back in here before somebody sees you,”

They obliged immediately and returned to their counterpart as soon as possible. More villagers had come into the arena to witness the match. Chatters of excitement were thrown left and right mostly about the anticipated match between Sasuke and the so-called Suna’s beast –Gaara. Eve had heard from Kakashi that Sasuke must train as hard as he can since Gaara could become a threat. Hopefully, those rigorous training of a month could do Sasuke some good.

Not to mention she had to worry for her second ward, Naruto, who was in the same predicament as the other boy. She did not doubt that the two of them would do fine in the tournament, however, as an active ward it was her job to worry. The same goes to Lily, her nerves were wrecked because of how stressful it was for her to just watch. Last night the two of them had gone home beaten up yet still had the strength to go for her. They stayed up all night in search of a last-minute back-up plan in case the first one strategy against their opponent didn’t work out. They insist that she should use the alethiometer as a way to find out what’s going to happen tomorrow. It would give them plenty of advantage since the probability for them to win would be higher. Yet, she found something more horrifying. A glimpse of her village torn apart at the seam, a huge dome that covered almost half of the village, and a gigantic monster built out of sand emerged from the outskirts of the village.

She tried to keep a calm look on her face to convince them that their plan for the finals would work out well in the end. Naruto was partly convinced of that knowing that at least he could kick pretty boy’s face in the long run. However, the other one wasn’t convinced at all. She may appear calm on the outside but her habit of picking her nails when she had something to hide didn’t escape his notice at all. It may have been seen as a bad habit from Naruto’s point of view but to Sasuke, it would appear to be otherwise.

He didn’t say anything about it, though. Yet, the lack of questions from him only fueled her sense with worry and dread. She knew that both of them would do just fine but what about her and Eve. They were not qualified to fight and especially in Lily’s case. Her motoric skills are shit but her brain made up for it. But at crucial times like this, she wished that at least she could run without trying to catch her breath for at least three minutes.

Her worry was noticed by her sister and Eve put a firm hand on her little sister’s shoulder.

“You seemed pretty tense. A penny for your thoughts?”

Lily was pretty torn up by two choices whether she should tell her sister or keep her mouth shut and let the event unfold itself. Yet, there was still a sense of duty that she could prevent at least the amount of casualties that transpire from this event. But there was still a gnawing thought in the back of her mind of how much she could interfere. The notes from her father were specifically written saying that the alethiometer worked by showing events that were important to a certain fixed point in time. In that case, other things that weren't shown by the compass were given a green light to be changed right? There were too many unknown variables that could cause an unravelling of a fixed point in time that she had grown weary of it. She needed guidance from an experienced person that had hands-on experience with the alethiometer. Said person that was sitting rather close to her.

“The alethiometer, it had shown me something. Say that you have a choice whether to let things happen the way it was supposed to or change a minuscule detail that nobody would probably notice. It wouldn’t change much but it would ease the damage that it would cause. Would you do it?”

Eve contemplated an answer to be said.

It was rather obvious that something big is going to happen today. She assumed from what Lily was implying it would be dangerous yet important. The whispering tone that Lily carried made her more certain that she should at least warn the Shinobi on duty. But that meant interfering with what needed to happen. She used to ask the same question towards the Master years ago when she was still under his wings. His specific instruction was made to be clear so that Eve wouldn’t take another route of misunderstanding. The coverage of time and its essence was taught to her for a whole two months until she could recite the laws of time without having its passage written.

“It depends on said situation though, Lils’. The alethiometer works in its own mysterious way. But just because it's way is unknown doesn’t mean we shouldn’t learn from the past mistakes that had occurred. No matter how small of a change you make from an event that had happened on a larger scale the outcome of it wouldn’t be the same. Think about it as a ripple in still water. Disturbing said water would cause a wave that had the potential to create a chain reaction that we do not know of the outcome. Yes, it had the chance to improve better outcomes but you cannot ignore that it could go otherwise as well. All the best that we could do was to let things transpire,”

In other words, no you cannot interfere. However, there was still a gnawing feeling of ‘what ifs’ scenarios inside her head that let her wonder. An inner turmoil between doing what was right and what was best to do grew and became a war inside her head. No more than a few minutes later, a booming sound of the master of ceremony echoed throughout the amphitheatre.

“Welcome ladies and gentleman to the final round of the chunin exam!”

The crowds went wild at the sound of Genma Shiranui addressing them. Eve went on to cheer with them as well seeing that she would be supporting both of her wards. Lily may not be as enthusiastic as her sister clapped, showing at least a little bit of pf excitement. Eve knew of the host a bit since he managed to go into her shop once or twice a month. His gossip about the locals' Shinobi entertained her to no end even if she didn’t even know half of them.

“Today we will be feasting our eyes with the most groundbreaking skills that will be put to the test. For a month, the contestant had trained themselves to reach their potential to compete in this final round. Now, they will be put to the test to see which one of them would be honoured with the title of the next Chunin. Before we begin let the Hokage give a few encouraging words to the contestant,”

The crowd went wild again in excitement to see the Hokage in all of his glory. Lily even snapped out of her state to admire the man who had led the village she lived in. She only heard the third Hokage’s stories courtesy of Naruto and sometimes Sasuke. Hearing his tales when he led the village in the third war was always invigorating her spirit.

She even kept the history book of Konoha to read in her spare time. The two would sometimes indulge her in her curiosity of their beloved home but they couldn’t disclose some secrets since the Shinobi was all about information safety.

“Welcome citizens, fellow Shinobis, and tourists alike! This final round will show us these talented Genins what it meant to become a true Shinobi. Not only that, but it also provided the strength between villages and brought them together in harmony,”

Eve stopped listening after he said that knowing that it was utter bullshit. Harmony was never an option between these Shinobi’s, she knew that on a personal matter. With so many kept tight secrets and scrutiny between villages, it was not the reason for their downfall. Instead, their irrational pride and ego had been in their way of war and chaos.

It took many lives and she could fully see it. The flashing of soft smiles and onyx eyes filled her mind. She clenched her teeth and forced herself not to cry by just remembering what happened that night.

Sasuke was not the only affected by the loss.

“All I wanted was to help, sister,”

The soft murmuring of her sister's voice would have been drowned by the crowd if she was not sitting close to her. Lily had her eyes attached to the Hokage whom she had admired. Her eyes that were filled with admiration and peace had glazed her over and Eve wondered how someone could admire a person from far away.

“You can stop me all you want but unlike you, I cannot stand by and watch all these people die for only selfish reasons. I saw them helping people and even if I am just a civilian I will do my best to help them,”

“And why is that?” Eve couldn’t help but ask.

“Because the duty to help others don’t only reside between the Shinobi but it is inside us too,”

Lily’s resolved cannot waver. She might not have mastered the art of fighting nor healing but at least saving one or two lives would prove to be suffice for her conscience. With that, she cheered even louder for both of Naruto and Sasuke while her mind was on a constant countdown of impending doom.

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	14. [Alethiometer]

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₼

Eve moved around the shop with a strange feeling in her stomach. It was like that time again. Her heart was racing and there was a trace of bile that froth inside her stomach. A pup was standing outside her store and looked at her knowingly. She recognized him as one of Kakashi’s summoning. He had introduced them to her a while back when his team had used his summoning for one of their missions.

She couldn’t say that they were very adorable right in front of their faces. Yet, behind those benign looks they could undoubtedly kill without hesitation. That was what had startled her the most. She thought that she had found one of her kind in Kakashi when he decided to summon them. When he explained to her, the nature of a summon became an alien notion to her. What makes a high being want to bond with a human?

Peculiar indeed.

The dog strutted towards her and looked with solemn eyes. A pleading to have some alone time to exchange information. Eve nodded towards the dog and motioned for him to follow her. His rigid form gave Eve a few warnings inside her head but she was willing to disregard it. She offered to give him a treat but he declined saying that his message was more important. She remembered his name was Bisuke after Kakashi had introduced her to them.

“Master needed you to come to the hospital immediately,” the dog began.

“As you can see Bisuke, I am a little bit busy here so you may have to postpone it. It is a wonder that the tourists know about this place,” Eve responded while tending the customers to their need.

“But it is an urgent matter,”

“Lily, can you tend table number five and cleaned up tables near the window? Thank you sweetie,”

The girl in question nodded and began to do her work. She spotted Bisuke behind the counter and pet him. Bisuke grew more frustrated when Eve ignored him and continued to do her work. Kakashi had sent him here so that Eve could help him but with her swamped with the shop she will be too preoccupied. Yet, he remembered exactly what could trigger Eve to do exactly what must be done.

“Please Eve, Kakashi really needs your help,”

Eve merely sighed and looked towards Bisuke. A scolding look on her eyes and a frown on her lips. It was unusual that Kakashi would pester her this much when he was a secretive bastard to begin with. Always keeping secret when it comes to her wards she had no other choice but to trust him. 

“Look Bisuke, I trust Kakashi enough to know that he didn’t really need my help in this. I’m sure that -”

“It’s Sasuke. He’s in danger,” Bisuke shouted in despair.

The sound of shattering glass reverberated in the shop and Eve came to find out that it came from Lily who had gripped a cup so hard that it shattered in her hands. The elder sister came to wrap a cloth around Lily’s hand immediately and cleaned up the mess that the latter had made. The once bustling shop came into silence to watch what happened. Betelgeuse that had observed the commotion from a nearby windowsill came floating to the centre of the shop.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid that there are some slight issues and we have to close down the shop. You can leave as soon as possible, leaving tips are also welcomed. Thank you,”

The once occupied seats and queues of people wanting to get a taste of the pastries dissolve and leave the shop in haste. They tried to turn a blind eye towards Lily who was whimpering on the ground. One even tried to help but Betelgeuse stepped with the help of Bisuke to warn them to not interfere. When the shop was empty, Eve waved her hand to close the curtains and summoned a first aid kit.

Coreolanus who had settled his form as a dӕmon crawled away from Lily’s front pocket. He had taken form as a hedgehog one night. Lily was forever thankful to know that she could carry Coreolanus wherever he went. He looked towards his scaly hand to find out that he was supporting the same wound as her. Betelgeuse who noticed Coreolanus stare flew down towards him.

“I could feel her pain?” he worded it like a question.

“Naturally. We, dӕmons, are a part of them. We will feel everything that they feel and vice versa. It is a pain in the arse to feel such thing but it is a necessary course of action to find out we are still connected to them,”

Bisuke waited patiently for Eve to finish bandaging her sister while Lily was suspiciously silent. However, Eve didn’t press on her about it. She worked meticulously to clean her sister’s wound, careful in plucking out fragments of glasses. Betelgeuse perched on his shoulder counterpart and analyzed the wounds. Three long gashes could be seen and might need some stitches to close them. The blood has stopped flowing and left scabs on her palm.

“You should go to Sasuke,”

“And left you here to bleed here. Yeah, I don’t think so,” Eve scoffed.

“He needs you more than I do,”

“I am going to him anyway after I treat you,”

“The alethiometer told me that you could save him,” she shouted.

Eve grew eerily quiet after Lily’s outburst. She knew that there was a slight chance that Lily would use the alethiometer without supervision but she never thought that it would be so soon. She couldn’t blame Lily for sure but there was a slight guilt feeling that Eve felt in the bottom of her heart. 

“What do you know so far?” Eve began.

“Enough to know that if we didn’t act sooner Sasuke would spiral into the unknown,”

Eve sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose to ease her growing headache. She knew that she had less time to act but she couldn’t do it in a rush for she wouldn’t know the repercussions if she changed something. She looked towards the younger girl and saw how determined yet scared how she looked. Lily had gnawed her lips that it was bright red from nervousness and worry.

The elder sister didn’t want to do anything to be quite honest. The meddling of fate because the alethiometer decided to show you that your loved ones are in great peril only lead to more anguish. She was well acquainted with the feeling since she had felt the same kind of pain before. Hence, Lily ought to use the alethiometer under her supervision so that she wouldn’t have to repeat the same history.

Lily, however, didn’t share the same sentiment as her elder sister. She had hugged Sasuke full force knowing that he was going to be thrown to the literal pit of snakes. The alethiometer had warned her about what was to come and she thought that it warned her for a purpose otherwise why would it show her that.

“Are you sure that he can be saved?”

“I have to, Eve,” Lily said with conviction.

With a sigh, Eve rushed upstairs to gather necessary equipment to carry to the hospital. She gathered a couple of potions such as blood replenishing ones until sleeping potions to stabilize Sasuke. She went to her room and picked up a few books from her personal stash when a heavy box fell on her head. She cursed but noticed the intricate carvings on the box and remembered why it was there.

_ “Use it only when it is only necessary. Once you do it you have to deal with the consequences,” _

She opened the box and saw the emerald necklace that she had brought from home. She didn’t have time to contemplate whether she should bring it or not when Betelgeuse flew towards her.

“I’m going to fly ahead to see how he’s doing. I’ll contact you through our link,”

“Be careful, Bett. It seems like you have grown attached to him,”

“I can’t help it. He reminds me too much of us,” he laughed to ease the tension.

Betelgeuse flew away through the nearest windows while Eve put on the necklace. She carried the bag and marched downstairs. She noticed that Lily was cleaning the remnants of glass and wiping spilled blood while her mind was occupied elsewhere. Eve marched towards Bisuke and asked her to take care of her. With that, she went full speed towards the hospital praying that she wasn’t too late.

-

Inks that were sprayed from the walls to the floor were the remains of what Kakashi had done to save Sasuke. She had gone to work immediately while disregarding the other man in the room. Furated, she was to fool herself that she had put trust in Kakashi to keep her wards safe. Now, she had to deal with the consequences of two wards in the hospital one in a critical condition.

“I know you’re tired but please drink this it will give you strength,”

She tilted Sasuke’s head so that he could drink the blood replenishing potion. She murmured a spell to stabilize himself and tried to find where the source of the problem was. Kakashi who was once a watcher came to her aid.

“Let me help you, Eve,”

“And risking for you to do it worse? Thought you were a teacher who’d done a good job,” she sneered.

Kakashi disregarded her words and lifted Sasuke’s neck to see the curse that was put on him. Eve put her palm over it and found out that there was a foreign system that tried to mingle with his Dust. However, it had a different feel to the Dust that she usually came in contact with. It feels cold to the touch and gives her all sorts of the wrong feeling. It tried to mingle with him and took place as one. First, she tried muttering a healing spell but the parasite rejected it quite easily. She tried again this time with a different approach by making Sasuke vomit the toxin out but it turned out to be futile.

She scrambled to find the answer through the pages of her books unwilling to give up. Betelgeuse, however, was perching near Sasuke, muttering a few words of comfort. Eve grew frustrated not wanting to resort to an emergency plan. Betelgeuse felt the ever rising tension in Eve’s being flew towards her and perched on her shoulder.

“I don’t want to resort to that, Bett,”

“But what other choice do we have?”

“Not condemning him to this,”

“Do you see any other way?”

Eve was about to reply when she was cut off not knowing what to answer. She was in the dark about this but she was racing against time to save her ward. She made a promise to that man to keep his brother safe no matter the cost. But if the cost was literally ripping his soul away from his body, was it really worth it?

“What if I fail, Bett?”

“And what if you don’t?”

He made a good point that Eve couldn’t deny. The process to extract the parasite from his system will be slow and would drain her capability for who knows how long. The chances of her succeeding is also low since what she was about to do was considered dark and unethical even from a witches point of view. But if she succeeded the chances Sasuke without the parasite is high. The side effect? Sasuke needed to get used to the idea that he will have a companion for the rest of his life.

Eve was weighing the option more and more when she was distracted by the ugly heaving Sasuke supported. Kakashi had given him more water to drink, helping whatever he could to ease the boy. Eve studied his nature and found out that his eye twitches a lot, a little sign that he was getting a bit desperate. She knew that it wasn’t his fault entirely but if she admitted it who was she going to blame.

“Kakashi help me get Sasuke out of his bed and into the floor,”

Wordlessly, he did what he was commanded to do and carried Sasuke placing him into the floor gently. Eve pushed the bed away so that there was space to put Sasuke while grabbing the pillow to give him a bit of comfort.

“Kakashi what am I about to do here is almost illegal since it correlates to killing him momentarily. No one except us in this room and my dӕmon will keep this secret to the grave. It is my decision as his guardian and a prove of your incompetence as a teacher,”

He winced at her last jab before nodding.

“What are you going to do to him?”

“Me? I’m just going to make him a friend of a lifetime,” 

↑

The cold wind that had bitten into his skin was his anchor into the real world. He had made his way in the cold land in between the heavy storm searching for the source of fluctuating energy. His dӕmon had led him in the storms so that he didn’t get lost. However, the plan didn’t actually work since Malcolm’s vision was limited. His vision was only filled by the white of the snowstorm and he was also distracted by trying to fight the wind.

He struck his pole on the hard surface and took out his detection gear. The radar had picked up a high fluctuation of the use on Dust not too long ago beyond the camp that he had set. He remembered the beeping sound of the fluctuating Dust and soon after the Northern Lights lit up the sky. He had taken loads of pictures to document said event and gear up as soon as possible, wanting to check what was the cause of it.

Halfway through his way across the glaciers, a strong snow storm crossed his path. Here he was now trapped in the middle of a snowstorm, not making any progress towards the source. Until suddenly, he was thrown forward because of the rope that connected him and Pandorica. The black panther didn’t blend in because her fur was like an ink to a blank paper. Yet, he thanked whoever it was out there that he could see her because of the difference.

“Are we still far away from the source?”

“We’re getting close. There’s a cave nearby. Is it the same one from the radar back at the camp?”

“Yes. We’re able to get there if we speed up unless we lost the track to the cave again,”

The North was notorious for its harsh environment and moving mountains. The land was not for the faint hearted yet its dangerous nature hid the sacred ways of living beyond the Magisterium's tight grip. He remembered the first time he went into the North to find secrets that were hidden by the witches. He found more than an answer of what he needed. Along the way he found more mysteries in the form of his little girl and his darling wife. 

They finally found the entrance of the cave that was hidden by the pile of snow. If he was not careful he would have missed it and continued his track to find it. Pandorica used her paws to dig into the pile helping Malcolm who had dug with his hands. Once they dig a hole that could fit a person inside they crawl with Pandorica as the lead.

Malcolm took out a ball and shook it as hard as he could. The ball flickered to light the whole room and he was met with beautiful sculptures of nature such as stalagmite and stalactite that reflected the light from the ball. Malcolm could see through the depths of the cave with the floating light as his main helper. He ventured further into the deep with Pandorica beside him sniffing out clues that he might have missed. Pandorica abruptly stopped and traveled to a hidden crevice and explored the uncharted territory.

“Malcolm, come here! I think you need to see this,” 

She had discovered a well hidden knife that shaped rather oddly. It couldn’t have been a witches famous knife nor would it be in possession of someone who was someone from the North. She remembered distinctly that they were in an uncharted territory of the North that was not yet mapped by the locals. Yet, Malcolm was more transfixed on something that he had found.

“It can’t be,” he muttered.

He kneeled and sniffed the obvious track of blood that led them to the furthest crevice of the cave. Who would’ve come this far away to uncharted territory while injured. He let the ball shone through the crevices of every cave. It felt like someone had poured red paints all over the walls and floors however the paint was replaced by blood.

It fascinated yet scared him at the same time. Myriads of questions came to his mind slaughtering his being. What happened here? How did it happen? But most importantly whose blood is it? He took notice of Pandorica’s finding. He took hold of the said knife that had laid there. It appears to be a small dagger with a trident shape. It’s intricate design was a foreign one that Malcolm could not identify straight. He picked up the knife and went on his way towards the deeper part of the cave.

The deeper he went the more blood was painted on the cave. The odd thing about this whole fiasco was because there was no trace of putrid smell that came from blood and no bodies that came with it. It grew more eerie when he found out that the deeper he got the walls of the cave mixed with ink. There were also marks that he distinctly remember looked like Yvonne’s scrolls back home. It has something to do with witches so he began to take photographs of it.

He took out his equipment and began to conjure the camera for it. Pandorica, however, explored a bit more further in case Malcolm was too heavily focused on the carvings. Flashes of light lit up the entire cave a few times. Malcolm examined the pictures that had been imprinted and felt joyous that it was a successful result even with minimal light.

“Pandorica, you have to see this! This probably has more answers about the fluctuating energy that we caught. Thank god hopefully it will make the board happy. I can't wait to see them once more. What do you think, Pan?”

He was met with silence. Pandorica had left him. However, he was not that worried since she may not be too far since he couldn’t feel pain at all. He called out for her several times until the black panther came to him.

“You have to see this. These carvings are probably older than Yvonne’s scrolls,”

“Malcolm, we need to go further,”

“But don’t you see this? I recognize one symbol about the so called tree of life that could separate -”

“Malcolm, I think I know whose blood is this,”

That shut Malcolm up.

He followed Pandorica further into the cave and found out that there was a man lying in a pool of his own blood. The stench came abruptly that Malcolm couldn’t help but gag. He was covered in his own blood that Malcolm couldn’t identify him. He looked towards the end of the cavern to find a painting that had depicted a strange white being hovering over a tree.

He disregarded the painting in favour of trying to find the dead man’s pulse to find something or anything. Malcolm thought that he must be important enough hence his position inside this cave. He could only sigh when he didn’t find anything. The dead body was also supporting a foreign attire that surely would not withstand the horrible temperature outside.

It became all the more puzzling when he could only come up with questions and zero answers. 

“I think we should pack up and leave this place behind. I don’t like the feeling of this place,”

“I think so too, Pan,”

He will have to make another stop to get more answers. Probably calling his assistant to remove the body hoping that polar bears of the North hadn’t mauled the body. He almost turned his back when he heard a breathing so shallow that if the wind wasn’t so loud outside he wouldn’t hear it. They abruptly stopped when they heard a serious coughing and heaving from the dead body. Pandorica growled to protect his counterpart while Malcolm came to said person’s aid. He helped the person into a sitting position and gave him some of his water to drink. The stranger gulped down sufficient enough water yet didn’t have the strength to interact with Malcolm.

“Only you who would help someone without knowing they are a danger to you or not,” Pandorica rolled her eyes.

“I just think he might be a crucial key to all of this,”

“That or you have a suicidal tendencies,”

Malcolm only chuckled light-heartedly to ease the tension. Yet, he became more tense when he realized something was amiss about this person. There was a crucial rule about his world that was overlooked by many. If one does not have it then either the person was dead or lying. A simple detail that could cause havoc when it was proved to be missing. He was afraid to voice his thoughts about it but it will only eat him alive if he didn’t get it out.

“Pan?”

“Yes,”

“Where is his dӕmon?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this story is apparently a year old. how times went by. sorry for the late post guys. I was trying to juggle between my college works, my apprenticeship, and life in general. hope you like this chapter. don't forget to leave a kudos and a comment it will be much appreciated. stay safe guys<3
> 
> [Edit: Well shit, 2500+ hits, 68 kudos, 20 subscriptions, and 22 bookmarks. I. AM. HONORED.]


	15. [Alethiometer]

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↑

Malcolm had planned this very carefully from the start.

He knew that the Magisterium was here to visit without a notice for a reason. A sudden inspection always hides their true reason for visitation. He was definitely sure that somehow Eliandil had caught wind of his findings in the North. Spies lurked everywhere he went so it wasn’t too surprising when the Magisterium sent her to snoop around.

His brooding thoughts were interrupted by the Master’s chatter that finally got in his thick head. The latter was leaning towards where he was sitting, an annoyed expression on his face.

“Did you hear what I said, Malcolm?”

“Perfectly, my friend,”

The latter knew that it was a lie. He could see how whenever Malcolm was too deep in his mind his eyes would zone out even if he was in mid-conversation. But, the Master would ignore it this time they had a pressing matter to attend too.

“Listen, the Magisterium had already begun their inspection this morning. If they catch you here or worse in the middle of the presentation they will have your head,” the Master blue eyes gazed at him.

Malcolm, however, seemed not too worried about the matter. He simply poured two glasses of whiskey and offered it towards the other man in the room. He downed the drink so that he could calm his nerves.

“Not to worry, I have come up with an idea so that the Magisterium didn’t interfere with our schedule,”

The Master only raised his eyebrows, an indication that Malcolm really needed to cut his crap.

“I intercepted with their schedule and had them meet with a few aristocrats that had some concerns regarding what their fundings had gone through,”

“And how did you exactly manage to do that?”

“By sneaking a few suspicious thoughts into their head, of course. The aristocrats here are terribly vain in their treasure. One word and all of it will blow up on its own,”

The Master smirked and crossed his hands. He was impressed by how Malcolm was able to pull the string yet he was still concerned about how he was going to convince the board member. It was no easy matter especially when his research was about Dust. He, still, couldn’t grasp how Malcolm managed to still be alive at this point. The Magisterium as far as he knew always snuff out people as quickly as possible when they even think about Dust. Yet, here was proof that there was a way to escape it all.

“Okay and pray to tell me that you already have a plan to convince the board on how to get the fundings,”

“Listen, you do not need to think about it. When they approve -”

“If they approve,”

Malcolm glared at the latter and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

“When they approve, you can go home. Do you not wish to do so?”

The Master could only dream of it yet just a mere thought of it just left him to freeze on the spot. He wanted to come home. He would love to see his friends, students, hell even his family yet he could not bear to see them because it would only remind him of the sins he had committed. Malcolm realized that he had touched a very sensitive subject and backed away from him.

Hermetheus sensing the emotional distraught that Malcolm had caused flew towards the Master and nudged in cheek. A silent message asking if he was alright. He looked towards his  dӕmon and ruffled her feather. She leaned towards the warmth of his hand and he felt comforted by it. He was reminded of how a certain person would do that. A sweet memory that left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

The Master could only smile and continue his day.

“Well, the boards aren’t going to suddenly change their mind,” he got up and began to cater Malcolm of his needs.

He packed the necessary equipment and documents to present while Malcolm could only analyze the situation. It was admirable how the Master could quickly go back on his feet but he decided that it was a question for another day that had yet to be solved.

“You know. You do not have to do this,”

The Master could only scoff at that.

“What? And left you with a debt that I could not repay. That’s not going to happen, Malcolm. Back home if someone was willing to help you without any payment you owe them and you already helped me back then. Now, it’s time I return a favour,”

“You already did, though. You helped my daughter to learn when I couldn’t,”

“That is called bare necessities,”

“Then, I guess I do not have to worry which sides you are on,”

With that, they left the study room and marched their way into the room where the board members bare their judgement. When they arrived, the board members were already there. The chairman of the board was there too for this rather special occasion. He had heard from his fellow board members that Lord Moreau had gone completely bonkers. Yet, it didn’t satisfy his curiosity at all. He managed to get a carriage at the last minute just to see the presentation. He wanted to know what was all the fuss about.

Malcolm strode gracefully towards him and shook hands.

“Professor Onyilogwu, I am surprised yet very grateful that you come here,” Malcolm masked a charming smile.

He was nervous as hell inside, though. Onyilogwu was notorious for being tight with research and strict with their findings. Tall, dark, and his cold persona didn’t really help either. Yet, he was born as an aristocrat's blood. He was sure he could handle this man well.

“Ah, Lord Moreau. The man of the hour. Your research has sparked an interesting debate, Lord Moreau. As I am sure you would already know it even attracts uninvited guests,”

“If a finding even sparks a tiny bit of chaos wouldn’t you say it be very interesting to look at,”

The professor couldn’t deny that phrase yet it also brings the concern of how it attracted unwanted attention from unwanted places. Malcolm is smart and it was undeniable. Yet, it was reckless to form a meeting in the middle of the Magisterium visit.

“Do not make me regret coming here for nothing,”

“I assure you, professor. You would not regret a single thing,”

Onyilogwu took a seat near the setting that the Master had set up and converse with the other board members.  They sat across the room and talked about their daily life even some of them gossip about. The Master closed the door and walked over towards a box to carry it.

“I hope that what you find in the North is worthy enough for us to gather here in such a short notice,” a board member voiced his thoughts.

“I came here to tell you, board members. That you are here to be mesmerized by our findings in the North as much as I am when I first discovered it,” Malcolm explained.

The Master helped him by setting up the photocards that he had taken when he was in the North. He remembered when Malcolm made this discovery since the Master was by his side this whole time. He nodded at Malcolm instigating that the preparation is complete and all that he had to do was to present his findings.

“Gentlemen as I am sure that you already know my findings correlate with our Northern hemisphere. Recent discoveries made by the University in Berlin that the witches there held secrets concerning our nature with our d ӕmon yet it was confiscated and the professor went missing,”

Other murmurs went from the board members about it yet Malcolm wasn’t discouraged.

“Lord Moreau, be very careful of your words. The Magisterium is here for a reason and one does not assume it’s only for a normal inspection!” the chairman of the board spoke.

“I am afraid the Magisterium have to wait for their inspection since it is an urgent matter of what I found,”

The Master slid a plate into the projector and the audience was feasted by a captured photograph of an entrance of a cave.

“A few months ago, I decided to return to a place that I find quite fascinating regarding the true nature of the North. It appears to be an ordinary cave when I first discovered it yet the metrics reading that I found years ago are still the same that I found recently,” Malcolm nodded towards the Master.

The latter changed the plate into another one of a picture Malcolm had taken ages ago.

“This, here, is one of the first clues that I have about what the cave was for. Apparently, witches used it as a temple in honouring their beliefs of Dust. That and it was built for another thing entirely,”

The next picture was a captured still on walls that probably dated back thousands of years ago. Ancient writing reserved only for the witches and Northmen.

“The stilled capture of these hieroglyphs represents a phenomenon known in the North as the Northern Lights. I travelled there with my friend here who acts as a guide to point me the highest point there,”

The images moved again to a still photograph of the Northern Lights. The light from the photo reflected throughout the room and the Northern Lights colour of green, blue, and violet danced. It was a beautiful spectacle, really, a true wild beauty that was hard to capture and tame much like the nature of the North.

“If you see this, board members, you are only seeing the bits of the North that I had managed to capture. But, when I decided to exchange the emulsion with a very sensitive particle that was studied, it had a certain reaction to Dust. It will create a chain reaction,”

The board members were now in disarray. A picture that was shown with the certain emulsion revealed another beauty that left the members in disbelief. The Northern Lights revealed a hidden city in the sky. The image was crystal clear and there was no denying that it was not real. Professor Onyilogwu could only assess the situation at the moment. Series of shouts of complaints and fear went through the board members.

“Are you mad, Malcolm? This could ruin the whole reputation of the College,” a board member shouted.

“You must be out of your head that this proof would allow you to continue your research,” others followed with that statement.

“If you decide to do that then I must conclude that you, board members, are nothing but cowards. This here is proof that the Magisterium is trying to cover the true nature of Dust and thus left us in the dark. It is also a further explanation of the growing gap in knowledge of understanding between us and our dӕmon. We are here as a member of the College need to stand our ground. We need to fight our freedom to do whatever it takes to take back the knowledge. Who will stand against me?” Malcolm growled.

He, however, didn’t notice the pair of eyes tucked away between the gaps of a bookshelf and ventilation of the room. If he did a familiar pair of blue eyes that he saw at home gave him a glance of admiration towards him. A knowing look of a child's sense of pride that it was her father that had made this commotion around the board members. A father to be proud of.

֍

Hiruzen Sarutobi had lived for a long time to know that there was nothing that could phase him any longer. He lived through so many wars that he couldn’t even count and had outlived his predecessor. It was a sad truth that he was nowhere smoking his way into the grave because the 4 th Hokage had died protecting the village. He remembered to keep a promise to protect his son as a dying wish and Hiruzen had tried his best.

He gazed through the night where the village was awfully quiet. Hiruzen didn’t know whether he should be grateful or not but he could appreciate it. Hence, the lit-up cigar in between his lips to celebrate the calm night. A crow perched on a windowsill nearby and Hiruzen thought it was an odd thing. Crows are not common in this part of the area unless they are a summon.

He could have sworn he remembered that Itachi had a crow summon but this one seemed too odd to be an ordinary summoning. Its’ eyes held too much intelligence, too much knowledge of something that he had yet known. However, he tried to disregard the bird and continued to inhale the cigars between his hands.

“Don’t disregard me, Sarutobi! I thought you are not daft if you see a being that is clearly not an ordinary animal,” the crow mocked.

A gentle yet mocking voice came from the bird. He was a bit surprised but he minimized his reaction by only raising his eyebrows and a pause on his activity. The third Hokage finally looked towards the bird and asked it.

“What’s a bird doing here and I assume that you have something for me?”

“This bird has a name! And yes I am delivering a message from my human counterpart,” the bird scoffed.

“Forgive me then, young one for my behaviour. My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi and you are?”

“You may call me Hermetheus and I present here with an offer towards the safety of Konoha’s citizen,”

Hiruzen widened his eyes in surprise and offered Hermetheus to enter the office. The bird flew inside and perched nicely on a nearby couch. Hiruzen signalled the nearby Shinobi to be on alert in case the summon animal that just went inside his office would attack him. The Anbu members tried to be as discreet as possible so that the bird remained calm. One, however, was far too tense and his supervisor a man with a spiky grey hair put a hand on his shoulder. The one with the crow mask had visibly calmed down while the latter speed towards the building.

“So whose summon do you belong to?” Hiruzen started.

“Tch. I belong to no one but myself. You can say that I am sent here by a person under the alias of the Master,”

“And what does he want with me?”

Hiruzen tried to study Hermetheus' behaviour in case the subtle gesture was of someone who was going to attack him. However, the posture was too relaxed and carefree if she wished to attack him. He put out his cigar in a nearby ashtray and focused his attention on her.

“Simple really. He wanted a trade that could benefit between the both of us,”

“And why would I do that?”

Hermetheus just laughed at him bitterly.

“Because we both know that the council acted as a flea in our hair and don’t disregard the fact that you also turn your back on the person that the last Hokage entrusted the most,”

Hiruzen froze and narrowed his eyes in distrust at her. The way she spouted it like acid didn’t help at all. Numerous questions appeared on his mind. How did she know? What does she want? And more importantly, who is the Master? The air was tense with how he didn’t know what to do. Hermetheus motive was questionable at best and the stationed Shinobi inside his office had gradually become suspicious of the bird.

He could order his men to take out the bird but it would be proven futile because he wouldn’t know her motives first. He could always listen to what she said first then kill her in the end.

“That is high-level information! How did you -”

“If it is then your security must be really shit,” she mocked.

He took out another cigar and sucked long enough to create a massive smoke in the air. Hermetheus coughed since she didn’t really like smoke. He weighed his option for this. If he didn’t play along and kill her right here the problem will be dealt with efficiently yet he would not know who is the Master and the reason why he possessed such critical information. It could leak out and he will be dealt with a bigger problem. However, if he played along he could trace her back to her original source and the problem will be plucked out from stem to root.

“All right, what is it that you want?”

Hermetheus puffed out in pleasure since this was according to plan.

“Give me related information regarding the village consume of Chakra and in exchange, I will give you information about an experiment that could potentially benefit Konoha in return,”

“What does this experiment entail?”

“He and his partner are developing some sort of a branch to connect the stability of a particle called Dust. However, we do not have sufficient data to sustain a stable connection. He thinks that this place can provide such data because of a fluctuating activity of Chakra using approximately six years ago. If you could give me the data and what happened afterwards till this day, we will come to an arrangement,”

Hiruzen took another hit of the cigar.

“So far you only give me what you want but what about the other end of the bargain? What do you have for me?”

“He was afraid you will say that,” if a bird could smirk then Hermetheus would have the widest one plastered on her beak.

“As far as I’m concerned you are in a very tight position with the Cloud Village, yes? He will provide you with someone whom he had trained very meticulously for this matter. If you agree to this, the person who is going to be deployed here will handle the situation with the utmost care so no one needs to be injured further,” she continued.

“And how do you know this matter?”

“The Master has a watchful eye regarding the safety of this village. He said that it was for your best interest and his,”

A tempting offer, Hiruzen thought. The silent war that was going on with the Cloud Village needed to be put to a stop. He had prayed to the Gods that he could find a way to put an end to all this and here was the answer, in the most out of the box way possible. Yet, he still couldn’t trust this strange bird and equally strange offer. There were too many variables that could lead to a potential catastrophe in the near future.

“I will need to think about this agreement further I’m afraid,”

“That is alright. I will return in two days time when the moon is as high as this day,” Hermetheus nodded.

Hiruzen nodded in return and she flew towards the nearby window and perched. He thought that she had already flown away when suddenly she spoke.

“Sarutobi, I really need you to think this through. Politically, this war with the Cloud Village will only prove to be constant but from a humanitarian perspective, you need to consider the dangerous outcome for the villagers. No one liked to see their eight-year-old children be sent to war and never come back. And please, do keep your Anbu members in line, I could sense them from a mile away,”

With that Hermetheus flew away and left Hiruzen to process what the hell just happened. He called a member of the Anbu to show from his place and he came out of the shadow. His grey hair stood out along with his mask of canine. He had seen what had transpired in this very room. Hiruzen had put him there for a reason and he would do his job.

“What do you think we should do, Cyrus?”

“Are you asking me as a member of the Anbu operative or a Shinobi of Konoha?”

“No. I am asking you as a villager of Konoha,”

The Anbu members pondered for a moment to weigh the pros and cons of said offer. It was true that they were in a tight spot with the Cloud Village. The war had even lasted before Hiruzen took his position as the assigned Hokage after Minato passed away. The head of the clans in Konoha already put their thoughts to put an end to this at once since the amount of supply and men continued to decrease each time they took a hit and tried to avenge it. However, he couldn’t help but be suspicious as well towards the offer.

What if it was a ploy to get Konoha to rest up and in return, the Cloud will seize them?

What if it was a third party that only thrived in the war?

What if it was all for nought?

“As a member of the Shinobi, I do not think it will be wise to accept the offer since it could lead to several things that could potentially be a threat to a nearby future,”

Hiruzen hummed in agreement.

“But what about your thoughts as a villager then?”

He had no idea what he had to say. Cyrus had abandoned his identity as an ordinary villager the moment he had decided to continue his father’s legacy so he had no time to ponder his life outside his duty as a Shinobi. Yet, that conversation had left him to wonder what could his life turn into. A finality that peace could come to him left him with hopeful thought.

“I do not think my thoughts as a villager is a concern to you, Hokage. However, I will support your decision either way as I am not fit to do it,”

Thinking about it years later, Cyrus pondered about what could have been if he expressed his concern as a villager rather than a Shinobi.

.

.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy holiday everyone!


End file.
